Students in the Knowledge Integration Senior Honours Project (two-term course, INTEG 420 A & B) research and develop a thesis, design or creative project under the mentorship of a faculty member with relevant expertise. The project culminates in a written deliverable, a public poster and a flash talk presentation.
The students will present summaries of their projects on Friday, March 21 at the Knowledge Integration Symposium 2025.
Also, check out: 2024 projects | 2023 projects | 2022 projects | 2021 projects | 2020 projects | 2019 projects | 2018 projects | 2017 projects | 2016 projects | 2015 projects | 2014 projects | 2013 projects | 2012 projects
Mapping Gambling Addiction Research to Social Media Addiction
Alex Chaban
Due to the recent emergence of online gambling, gambling addiction research has become a highly studied topic. At the same time, social media addiction research has developed too, however both fields exist in separate silos. Since social media addiction is a relatively new topic, there have been few attempts to compare both gambling addiction and social media addiction research. Historically, researchers have viewed these issues separately, opting to explore each form of addiction on its own. This paper suggests that gambling addiction research can in fact be used to inform social media addiction research, and policy responses should be explored.
A detailed literature review was used in addressing this gap between gambling and social media addiction. Qualitative results in relevant gambling and social media addiction research were evaluated, with comparisons being made where appropriate. Research is ongoing; however, several key findings have emerged. This paper finds that social media addiction can spur symptoms of gambling addiction, most often in youth. Symptoms are comparable to “problem gambling” (PG), creating sentiments of restlessness, obsessive preoccupation, and irritability.
These issues require a policy response yet have lacked a clear foundation for justification. This paper establishes that current gambling addiction research is transferrable to social media addiction, and that a similar policy response is merited. Discussion focusses on youth protection policies and regulations that limit the amounts of social media consumption. Implications of these policies are explored and considered in the context of the findings of this paper. Both the public and policymakers would benefit from this paper’s analysis, and its findings provide a strong contribution to the realm of addiction research.
Beyond the Playground: Integrating Children into Public Spaces
Alisha Dey
Public spaces are often designed primarily for adults, offering children limited opportunities for engagement beyond passive observation or designated play areas. However, independent play and exploration are critical for early childhood cognitive, social, and emotional development. This project explores how airports, hospitals, and retail environments can be designed to foster meaningful engagement for children aged 4-6, a developmental stage characterized by emerging communication skills, curiosity, and a growing sense of independence.
Through research in environmental design, child development, and urban planning, this project proposes design interventions that encourage interactive exploration within these public spaces. By integrating elements that promote curiosity, autonomy, and social interaction, these interventions aim to transform everyday environments into enriching and inclusive learning experiences. The primary users of these designs are children and their guardians, while public space owners serve as key stakeholders responsible for implementation.
To evaluate existing spaces, a structured framework was developed to assess their capacity to support children's exploration and independence. Prior examples of child-inclusive public infrastructure have demonstrated positive outcomes, benefiting both children and the adults around them. This project builds on those successes by advocating for design strategies that encourage children to embrace independence rather than shy away from it.
The project is currently in progress, and user feedback has not yet been collected, as mockups will be completed as part of the final deliverable. Once available, feedback will be gathered through focus groups with guardians and, at later stages, through direct engagement with children using tactile models. Additionally, insights from public space owners will help determine the feasibility and impact of proposed design elements. Findings from this research will contribute to a broader conversation about how public spaces can be intentionally designed to support early childhood development.
Digital Interventions to Increase Belonging in a Relational and Community Level
Allen Lu
Mentor: Danielle Deveau, English Language and Literature, University of Waterloo
Lack of belonging among the general populace is growing, with a disturbing rise in people feeling that they lack friends, feeling isolated from cities, and lacking the means to interact with others from a diverse range of backgrounds. Although some research has outlined the impacts of digital tools on feelings of loneliness, not enough research has been done to draw conclusive recommendations on how they can be used to combat lack of belonging.
At the same time, conversations regarding digital tools in cities and communities—such as in future/smart cities—often revolve around efficiency and operations, neglecting the potential of digital tools to advance humanistic outcomes. Hence, this project explores how belonging can be fostered through the creation or augmentation of mobile applications, with the goals of addressing the research gap that exists with digitization and loneliness, as well as expanding the current conversation regarding future cities to include intersections of human-computer interaction (HCI) and urbanism.
Three examples (prosocial exchange systems, location-based games, friendship apps) are highlighted as examples of cartographic, localized approaches that aim to increase belonging. Using these examples, artifacts are created that are hypothesized to restore the sense of belonging and localization among people that has been lost to digitization. These artifacts are tested amongst university students at the University of Waterloo over one month, using design thinking and entrepreneurial principles to determine their benefits on belonging. The resulting implications include demonstrating the benefits of digital tools in combating loneliness, showcasing best principles for app developers to incorporate belonging into their applications, and contributing to the emerging intersections of HCI and urbanism as cities increasingly incorporate digitization in their strategies. Those who may be interested include students, technology companies, and those interested in future cities that are healthy and inclusive.
Science on Display: Curating the Murray Shaw Collection of Historic Scientific Instruments
Caraline Girouard
Mentor: Corina McDonald, University of Waterloo Science Museum Curator
In 2023, the University of Waterloo acquired a collection of artifacts from Murray Shaw, a Waterloo Undergraduate and PhD alumnus and avid collector of pieces of scientific knowledge and history. Known as the Murray Shaw Collection, his legacy cumulation of Victorian to midcentury artifacts currently resides in storage. In this Senior Honours Project, I will be working under the advisement of Corina McDonald, Curator of the UW Science Museum and Galleries, to prepare the collection for display in the Science Teaching Complex on the UW Campus to enrich the space for students and create a feature for visitors of all ages. The collection will be catalogued, researched, and organized into a display proposal, aiming to provide a visible history of the sciences and teach interested visitors about the context of science in Canadian history.
An educator's guide to video game design and their effects on learning performance
Cori Wong
Video games have emerged as one of the most popular forms of media in an increasingly digital world. Though the development of educational video games is not new, video games are increasingly being recognized both in research and amongst educators as an effective learning tool. This paper aims to consolidate existing research on the effects of video game design on learning performance through a literature review, and provide guidance to educators on effective ways to incorporate video games into the classroom. A majority of studies examined demonstrate a positive correlation between video games and learning engagement; however, video game design elements such as interactivity, disfluency, and emotional design do not always correlate positively to learning performance and germane processing. Common non-design determinants influencing the extent to which a student can benefit from video games in education include existing video game experience; assessment methods; neurological conditions (e.g. neurodivergence and video game addiction); and curriculum design. Therefore, learning can be maximized when video game design and learning outcomes and methods are aligned, such as through non-traditional assessment methods, personalized learning, mastery-based learning, and constructivist alignment. Educators looking to incorporate video games into a course should consider learning methods and video game design elements as an interconnected system, where design elements are mapped to learning outcomes and pathways and chosen to optimize a student's ability to master knowledge.
Impacting the Outcomes of Psychiatric Inpatient Units Through the Design Process
Corinne Knox-Germans
Mentor: Dr. Leigh-Anne Hepburn, The University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning
Psychiatric inpatient unit users face many systemic issues causing negative patient outcomes and staff that are overworked and burnt-out. These concerns are difficult to address at a systemic level due to healthcare being innovation resistant for the sake of safety. Looking at these issues through the design process of a unit gives a unique opportunity to follow the current regulations protecting safety while still making much needed changes. Creating specific pathways for compassion for the user experience through tools for co-design and the individual design process can yield creativity and innovation while using metrics of success to incorporate the necessary safety elements and regulations. This proposed design toolbox is meant to prioritize the user experience by being mindful of where the emotional labor is in the process and creating compassion for those experiences. It has been designed with the specific needs of psychiatric inpatient unit spaces but can also be personalized for other similar spaces.
Illuminating Integration: A Comprehensive Overview of Knowledge Integrator Expertise
Emma LeCouffe
Mentor: Katie Plaisance, Knowledge Integration
We live in a world that is currently facing a vast array of complex (often called “wicked”) problems. Wicked problems such as climate change, poverty, health inequality, and food insecurity can’t be solved by any single discipline, field, or perspective alone. To understand and address these problems, we must take an integrated, cross-disciplinary approach where multiple disciplines, fields, and important stakeholders come together, each contributing their unique perspective to create an understanding of these problems that is comprehensive and holistic. While there is growing agreement that such an integrated approach is necessary, it is rarely any one person’s job to integrate these perspectives into a unified whole; therefore, we need more individuals with expertise in knowledge integration to facilitate this essential work.
The Knowledge Integration program at the University of Waterloo has recognized this gap and works to train these much-needed individuals. However, while some already understand the value of the Knowledge Integration program, there continues to be a lack of understanding surrounding what knowledge integrators are, what they do, and why they are so important.
My project aims to fill this gap by drawing on literature about integration, cross-disciplinarity, and knowledge mobilization to design a webpage for the Knowledge Integration website that explains the valuable yet often ambiguous expertise that knowledge integrators have. My project has several goals: (1) to empower current Knowledge Integration students and alumni to feel more confident and better able to explain their very valuable expertise to others, (2) to help the Knowledge Integration program recruit more students by clarifying what this type of expertise looks like, and (3) to enable external audiences, such as employers and others at the University of Waterloo to better appreciate and leverage the unique expertise that Knowledge Integration students have.
Student Perceptions of Generative AI-enhanced Learning
Erika Bruulsema
Mentor: Cameron Shelley, Systems Design Engineering
Generative artificial intelligence is a recent technology that can generate content such as text and images based on prompts from users. However, the introduction of this technology has been highly concerning for educators as AI tools pose a threat to academic integrity and traditional pedagogy, alongside other ethical considerations such as data privacy and biased outputs. Despite these concerns, the development of generative AI continues, and as it improves, it becomes more difficult to detect and regulate in educational settings. Since mitigating its usage is proving to be impossible, many educators foresee the adaptation and integration of AI into the classroom as necessary and inevitable. At this time, it is important to consider not only the potential capabilities of generative AI as an educational tool, but also the perspectives of those who will be most affected by this major change to classrooms. The two questions this project aims to answer are:
- What are student perceptions of generative AI as an educational tool in undergraduate higher education?
- Do student responses differ across subject areas (e.g. STEM vs arts/humanities students), and if so, how?
The method used to answer these questions is an adapted narrative review of 20 experimental studies designed to integrate AI tools into a classroom and investigate student perceptions and feedback of the experience. Preliminary findings of this project include that students generally have positive perceptions of generative AI, and that digital literacy – knowing how to use this technology effectively and ethically – is key in adapting learning environments, for both students and educators. The conclusions of this project will also identify areas that require further research and attention before widespread adoption of AI educational tools and supports.
Slow Fires: How Libraries and Archives Die, and Why it Matters
Izz Kelly
Mentor: Ian Milligan, History; Rob Gorbet, Knowledge Integration
In the early years of the internet, the dream of a truly universal library seemed, perhaps the first time, within humanity’s reach. Yet in today’s post-truth world shaped by generative-AI, large-scale disinformation campaigns, and planned technological obsolescence, it’s clear that the continued impacts of the digital age have much more complex implications for the preservation of and access to information. Despite the critical, continuing role of libraries and archives in this preservation and access – whether its international archival projects or niche local history – these institutions are chronically underfunded, undervalued, and overlooked. And as funding and resources dwindle, so does the capacity of these institutions to connect with and serve their users. Hosted as a temporary exhibition in the university’s own Dana Porter library, this project aims to highlight the history, processes, goals, and challenges of modern libraries & archives. This curated overview will equip visitors with a deeper understanding of how libraries and archives shape their lives, and how they can, in turn, support the accurate preservation of human history – from getting a local library card to paying attention to policy and funding decisions that shape the future of these institutions.
30 x 15: Exploring the Power of Freestyle Dance
Jeanelle Macatangay
Mentor: KINAJ, KINAJ Dance Company
Freestyle dance, which involves spontaneous, improvised movement without set choreography, is a powerful way to enhance choreography performance. It helps dancers express emotions, improve musicality, and explore various styles of music. Despite its many benefits, freestyle dance is often underestimated. In fact, it’s a valuable practice that can be seamlessly integrated into any dancer’s training to boost creativity and performance.
Freestyle dance is accessible for all levels—whether you're a beginner or an advanced dancer. For beginners, it offers a low-pressure way to ease into dance, build confidence, and overcome nervousness. For intermediate and advanced dancers, it provides a refreshing break from structured routines and encourages exploration of new movement possibilities. Through freestyle, dancers can develop greater confidence, improve choreography execution, and experiment with facial expressions and stage presence to enhance their overall performance.
In this study, the participant will learn a piece of choreography made by mentor KINAJ then engage in 15 consecutive days of freestyle dance practice, for 30 minutes each day. After this immersive experience, they will re-perform the original choreography. Mentor KINAJ will then evaluate the participant’s progress using before-and-after videos to assess any improvements in confidence, execution, and overall performance.
The Bitter End: a critical examination of Western perspectives on death, and how to change them for the better
Joel Klassen
Mentor: Andrew Stumpf, Philosophy
It is no surprise that there is only one certainty in life, which is that everyone will eventually die. Despite the widespread awareness of this fact, the general approach among Western societies seems to be to avoid the topic altogether in conversation and day-to-day life. Dying people are often subjected to sub-par end-of-life experiences because our society struggles to accept our own mortality. To get a better understanding of this issue, I examined the existing body of work on this topic and compiled some of the most relevant findings into a literature review. The literature showed a strong consensus among experts that there are issues in the way Western cultures think about and approach death from a medical, social, and individual standpoint. However, it also suggests that there are promising ways of shifting social perspectives on death from avoidance to acceptance and embracement. Certain cultures exemplify the efficacy of death-related rituals, like the Day of the Dead in Mexico, to shift the public’s relationship with death for the better. Community engagement efforts like death cafes also show that normalizing conversation about death can help people come to terms with their own mortality and that of their loved ones. Practices like these help normalize widespread thought and discussion about death, counteracting the avoidance with which many Western societies treat the topic. When applied to death-avoidant Western societies, these practices have the potential to redefine the norms of how we think about the most significant transition of life: death.
Queering the '365 Party Girl': Examining the Role of Charli xcx's 'brat' in the Queer Legacy of Hyperpop
Jordan Kalist
Mentor: Kim Hong Nguyen, Communication Arts/Gender and Social Justice
Released on June 7, 2024, Charli xcx’s 6th studio album brat quickly became more than an album. It was a series of internet trends, a marketing tactic, a way of being. The stark and simple black and neon green marketing, the messy ‘party girl’ aesthetic, and terminology like ‘brat summer’ were adopted not only by countless individuals, but by major organizations such as NATO and the Harris 2024 Presidential Campaign. The sonic and lyrical connections of brat, as well as the career of Charli xcx herself, to the unabashedly queer musical community of hyperpop raises questions about the use of historically queer art to promote major institutions such as these. I examine and compare the queer legacy of hyperpop to the more apolitical presentation of brat adopted by mainstream popular culture, and consider the queer role of Charli xcx as a musical diva. I also consider how genre formation works to oversimplify art and make it marketable as nothing more than a commodity, and how brat signals a boxing-in of the formerly superfluous hyperpop. With this in mind, discussion arises on how to ‘queer’ the ‘365 Party Girl’ brat persona; how to identify with music and art in a consumerist culture, while avoiding alienation from one’s own struggles and community.
Resonance in Motion: A Soundscape Exploration Through Emotion
Lilian Lam
Mentor: Lyon Smith. Theatre
Sound plays a fundamental role in shaping a person’s psychological state, it can evoke certain emotions or even memories. This project is a creative experiment and reflective inquiry into the power of sound design to evoke emotions through the creation of two soundscapes focused on evoking the complex emotions of exploration and a sense of personal accomplishment. Drawing on existing immersive media and literature in sound design and emotion theory, the project investigates how specific auditory elements, such as pitch, tempo, spatialization, and sound metaphors, can be utilized to evoke emotional states. This project consists of two soundscapes that paint an auditory picture or story through the manipulation and combination of sounds. The ‘exploration’ soundscape focuses on evoking feelings of, intrigue, discovery, and the unfamiliar through dynamic sound transitions and expansive spatial effects like surround panning and texture layering. The second soundscape aims to present a sense of personal accomplishment through auditory storytelling, evoking an understanding of desperation and triumph through changes in tempo and sound distortion. The project allows the general public regardless of age to listen, be immersed in, resonate, imagine, and introspect as to what feelings the sounds evoke for them. These soundscapes are heavily influenced by personal auditory triggers of exploration and drive found through experimentation and stream-of-consciousness analysis while listening to inspiration pieces. Thus, revealing the importance of personal experience with different sounds (eg. exposure to film or music) and the mnemonic linkage of sounds to an individual’s emotions, when attempting to evoke emotions with sound.
An Assessment of Impact and Sustainability K/W Tiny Home Housing Projects for Homeless Persons
Luke Van Decker
Mentor: Sean Geobey, Environment
The growing disparity of unhoused individuals in North America, exacerbated by the affordable housing crisis, has prompted the exploration of alternative housing solutions, often developed independently of state provisions. As an apparent evolution from tent cities, many unhoused persons are constructing tiny home villages as semi-permanent dwellings, funded either privately or by governing entities. For those experiencing profound psychological trauma that perpetuates cycles of homelessness and mental health challenges, a small, manageable space like a tiny home offers a potentially transformative solution. Tiny home villages also provide a sense of community and stability utterly absent from a harsh life on the streets, which are often critical in fostering recovery. This movement has gained significant momentum, with nearly every municipality in Ontario grappling with homelessness either initiating or considering such projects. Cities like Hamilton, Kingston, Toronto, and Kitchener-Waterloo (K/W) have made considerable progress, with varying forms and execution.
This paper examines the financial sustainability and challenges associated with housing homeless populations broadly and more specifically in K/W, as well as government policies and public reactions to the region's tiny home village initiatives. Additionally, through interviews conducted from January 4th to February 11th with key stakeholders holding inside information into the innerworkings of K/W tiny home projects, the ongoing impact of these projects is analyzed. Also, by comparing the outcomes in K/W to similar developments across North America and reflecting on a perfect scenario, this study seeks to identify best practices for achieving success that supports both the homeless and the broader community. Finally, it provides an impartial and critical evaluation of the drawbacks, alternatives, and limitations of tiny homes as a response to homelessness, considering factors such as scalability, long-term viability, and the potential for unintended social and economic consequences.
Cultivate Resilience and Growth Mindset in Ontario’s High Schools
Marcus Chan
Mentor: Katie Plaisance, Knowledge Integration
The Ontario Curriculum has long lacked intrapersonal skills, particularly resilience and growth mindset. My Senior Research Project explores a design-based solution to address this gap. The project involves designing and facilitating five workshops for underserved high school students in the Waterloo region. Drawing from research in pedagogy, developmental psychology, and education psychology, the workshops aim to cultivate resilience and a growth-oriented approach to failure by integrating Bloom’s Taxonomy, Edmondson’s failure typology, and Freirean problem-posing pedagogy.
The workshops use interactive activities, such as creating a “Failure Resume,” paired discussions, and structured reflections to guide students through critical thinking, collaborative learning, and self-assessment processes. By focusing on real-world failures and their underlying causes, I can help students analyze setbacks, extract valuable lessons, and develop actionable strategies for future growth. Ultimately, these workshops will cultivate the development of key character traits essential for personal and academic success, including perseverance, self-regulation, and intrinsic motivation.
The primary audience includes high school students (Grades 11-12) from underserved communities, with the workshops designed for classrooms or enrichment settings. Anticipated outcomes include greater resilience to failure, improved self-efficacy, enhanced emotional intelligence, and increased adaptability to life’s challenges. At the end of each workshop, educators and participants will fill out customized feedback forms and minute cards, consisting of qualitative questions and Likert scales. This feedback will inform future iterations of the workshops, ensuring continuous refinement and effectiveness. I aim to pursue this project further through a Master of Education, where I can advocate for systemic educational reform, integrating character education and the explicit teaching of intrapersonal skills into mainstream curricula to raise a more mindful and resilient generation.
Investigating the Integrated Physiological and Psychological Recovery Trajectories in Elite Female Soccer Athletes Post-Injury: Identifying Sport-Specific and Universal Barriers to Return-to-Play
Prani Upadhyay
For elite female athletes, injury is not just a physical setback but a defining moment that disrupts identity, resilience, and career trajectory. Recovery extends beyond medical treatment and rehabilitation; it is a multidimensional process shaped by the interplay of physiological healing, psychological endurance, and sport-specific demands. This study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative interviews with elite female soccer players and quantitative analysis of rehabilitation metrics, to investigate the integrated recovery trajectories of injured athletes. Physiologically, injuries alter biomechanics, disrupt training regimens, and necessitate sport-specific rehabilitation strategies such as progressive load-bearing exercises, neuromuscular retraining, and sport-specific conditioning protocols. However, psychological hurdles including fear of re-injury, loss of athletic identity, anxiety, depression, and fluctuating motivation often present equal or greater obstacles. Many athletes face immense pressure to return quickly, navigating a system where mental health support remains secondary to physical rehabilitation. This research seeks to answer critical questions: How do physiological and psychological factors interact throughout the recovery process? What unique challenges shape an athlete’s ability to return to play? How do gendered expectations, societal pressures, and access to psychological support influence rehabilitation outcomes? By focusing on elite female soccer players, this study offers sport-specific insights while addressing broader implications for female athletes across disciplines. By integrating both physiological and psychological dimensions, this research challenges traditional rehabilitation models, advocating for a holistic, athlete-centred approach. Findings will provide critical insights for coaches, sports medicine professionals, and athletic organizations, ensuring that female athletes are not only physically prepared but also mentally empowered to reclaim their place in competition. In a landscape where female athletes continue to break barriers and redefine excellence, acknowledging both their visible and invisible struggles is imperative. Injury should not mark the end of an athlete’s journey through a deeper understanding of recovery’s interconnected nature, this research aims to reshape post-injury rehabilitation frameworks, empowering female athletes to return stronger than ever.
The Ever-Failing Golden Rule: The Crisis of the Current Lack of Empathy
Rachel vanderKooi
Mentor: Corina McDonald, University of Waterloo Earth Sciences Museum
There is a current rise in the lack of empathy in today’s society, and it could lead to our downfall. Empathy is an important part of the human experience which allows people to share and learn from each other. Empathy is one of the things that links individual needs and experiences and helps create positive societal behaviors. Unfortunately, the world has been experiencing a serious decline in empathy, especially when it comes to politics and religion. The rise in social media has led to less physical human connection, an overload of information, a lack of critical thinking, and a lack of nuanced thought. As a society, we lack the capability to handle the vast amount of information coming at us constantly and this has created an information overload. While this affects all sectors of society, this emotional overload is particularly prevalent in the younger demographics as they have always had access to this information overload and lack proper social media literacy. Add this to increased isolation caused by the rise of online work and school, and we have created a society that has become very self-centric. Placing a considerable amount of importance on self over community leads to an individualistic, “what about me?” mindset. The rise in social media, and the isolation that accompanies it, has created an environment where it is difficult to think about anything but yourself and leads to a replacement of empathy with sympathy where genuine connection is now a relief of not being in someone else’s position. The increased isolation paired with a lack of social media literacy leaves isolated individuals vulnerable to following influencers who foster an environment of unempathetic mindsets and the belief in the “sin of empathy”. This paper explores the role that social media and religion play in the current shift of a less empathetic society.
The Built Environment and Overdose: A Scoping Review of Qualitative Studies
Rachel A. Deshpande, Meya A. Jurkus, Geoff Bardwell
Mentor: Dr. Geoff Bardwell, School of Public Health Sciences, Faculty of Health
Background: There is a growing body of literature on the effects of the built environment on health outcomes. With the overdose crisis growing and the lack of effective policies reducing risks associated with unregulated substance use, it is imperative to investigate how physical environments facilitate or protect against overdose. This scoping review builds upon a recent scoping review conducted to investigate the built environment factors that affect fatal overdose specifically where notably, only quantitative studies were included due to a lack of qualitative research on fatal overdose. This study seeks to characterize qualitative literature on the built environment and non-fatal overdose.
Purpose: Qualitative research provides more in-depth perspectives and experiences compared to quantitative research and understanding the literature via a scoping review will be complementary to what is known from the quantitative literature and provide further nuances on the built environment and overdose in general.
Methods: We conducted a scoping review of qualitative and mixed methods studies that describe the built environment and factors that are related to overdose (fatal and non-fatal), published between January 1995 and October 2024. In our second round of screening, 64 articles underwent full-text review following our eligibility criteria, with 40 articles progressing to data extraction. The review followed the JBI Manual for Evidence Synthesis scoping review methodology, including the standardized checklist for reporting on scoping reviews, PRISMA-ScR.
Results or hypothesized results: In total, 40 articles were included in this review.
We divided the results into four overarching categories: indoor overdose locations; outdoor overdose locations; intersections of built environments and other social/structural factors including privacy, sociability and comfortability, and targeted interventions for the built environment that increase the efficacy of reducing overdose risk, including technologies, increasing availability of services and trained responders.
Implications: This study provides a comprehensive examination of the qualitative research on built environment and overdose. Key findings from this scoping review focused on how the built environment influenced the consumption practises and experiences of PWUD when trying to balance harm reduction practices while maintaining the integrity of their drug-taking experience. There also exist tensions between privacy and comfortability in the built environment and experiences of sociability and safety. This research is important to understand factors that may facilitate or reduce the risk of overdose and is integral to informing policy and place-based interventions.
A Policy Framework Proposal to Sex Work Through Crown Corporations
Shea-Lynn McLean
Mentor: Rashmee Singh, Sociology & Legal Studies
Societal values have continuously evolved over time, reshaping perceptions of what is considered to be acceptable or taboo. As societies and cultures adapt, certain activities once deemed permissible become stigmatized, even the world’s oldest profession prostitution. The goal of this project is not to determine the correctness of sex work as morality is subjective, however me must determine how to navigate activities which continue to exists despite prohibition laws. Both historical prohibitive laws and Canada's current “deregulation” laws attempts to eradicate sex work have consistently failed to protect sex workers and dissuade participation in the activity. This project explores one of the ways in which the Canadian government has dealt with immoral activities, crown corporations also known as state enterprises, for example the LCBO or OLG. This project uses the design of a mock strategic plan to question the current state of legislation and assumptions made about the industry. While this analysis does not claim to resolve the ethical and social debates surrounding sex work, its results are meant to offer a critical lens through which to reassess conventional attitudes and policy decisions regarding the regulation of morally contested industries.
Interventions to reduce fear and disgust toward insects: A scoping review
Sophia Armstrong
Mentor: Dr. Brendon Larson, School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability
In conservation efforts, species that are charismatic, attractive, similar to humans, or easily anthropomorphized often receive disproportionate support, while less appealing species, such as insects, are overlooked despite their ecological importance and endangered status. Insects provide essential ecosystem services vital for both human well-being and ecological health. However, widespread fear and disgust, known as entomophobia, significantly hinder public perception and empathy toward insects, affecting their conservation support. To address this issue, it is crucial to identify interventions, such as educational programs, that reduce these negative perceptions and, in turn, foster positive attitudes toward insects. To do this, a scoping review of academic literature from Scopus and Web of Science was conducted with the guiding research question: What interventions exist to reduce fear and disgust toward insects? The search yielded approximately 1050 results, with just over 100 documents included in the review based on their focus on interventions to reduce insect fear and disgust or improve public perception and empathy, thereby indirectly decreasing entomophobia. Data charting is ongoing, but preliminary results suggest that environmental education is a promising intervention. Specifically, educational interventions that employ direct, hands-on experiences with the target species can enhance knowledge, interest, and conservation willingness while fostering positive attitudes, biophilia, and nature connectedness. Simultaneously, these interventions help correct misconceptions and reduce fear, disgust, and perceived danger. Other identified interventions include positive media exposure, gardening, informal social learning, story maps connecting insects to cultural services, digital games with animal avatars, and childhood collecting experiences, including insect catching and gathering wildflowers and fruits. Ongoing analysis will further clarify the variety of interventions in the literature. Still, these preliminary findings highlight the value of combining positive human-insect interactions with education about these species to reduce entomophobia and foster public support for insect conservation.
Chipping In: How Artificial Intelligence Can Aid Canada’s Climate Efforts
Sophie Thomas
Mentor: Helen Kerr, Future Cities
In November of 2022, the release of ChatGPT brought artificial intelligence-driven technologies into the public eye. Now, companies and governments are racing to determine the most optimal applications of AI as it is considered the newest “general purpose technology”, with a forecasted impact comparable to that of electricity and the Internet. Artificial intelligence has been branded as a solution to the world’s most wicked problems and as the climate crisis worsens, the arrival of this technology comes at an ideal time. However, alongside assisting with climate mitigation and adaptation efforts, AI has the potential to critically intensify the climate crisis. The significant amount of energy required to train and run these computationally intense models raises concerns about AI-driven carbon emissions. There are also climate risks related to the AI-driven exacerbation of existing social issues, such as the perpetuation of discrimination through implicit algorithmic bias that further exposes socio-economically vulnerable groups to climate hazards. Through systems thinking and foresight techniques like Causal Layered Analysis, this project creates an accessible and compelling synthesis map to give readers a top-down view of Canada’s artificial intelligence ecosystem in the context of climate change. Readers will understand that while AI products present exciting opportunities for innovation, AI is not a panacea for climate change or any other issue. The application of AI to climate change and the development of AI products as a whole should be conducted with caution. Canadians must understand the limitations and risks of AI solutions to hold research organizations, corporations, and the government accountable for their roles in developing, implementing, and managing AI products. Readers can contribute to the development of sustainable AI by supporting sustainable data centers, the regulation of open data and explainable AI standards, and joint policy-making between climate and AI experts.
What Should you Learn? Growth Mindset, Emotional Intelligence, and Other Factors’ Effects on Happiness
William Patterson
Mentor: Ginu Chacko, Talentrade
If everyone in the world could learn one piece of knowledge, or develop one character trait, what should it be? Education is built around the idea of enabling growth and learning in people; this research will focus on identifying the most important notions to instill in people through education. To answer this question, the effect on population-level happiness will be used as the criterion to determine the importance of different variables since it is regarded as a fundamental goal across cultures, particularly in a Western context where utilitarianism plays a prominent role in theorizing what is right or wrong. I am conducting an exploration of the literature around how to best understand and measure happiness and on character traits or lessons that hold potential for being particularly impactful in increasing happiness across people, so far, consisting of growth mindset, psychological safety, emotional intelligence, and grit. Although the exploration is ongoing, all four concepts promise meaningful improvements in happiness levels, for example, via increasing the quality of relationships. I will conduct a comparative analysis of these four concepts using data from the World Values Survey, World Happiness Reports, and Global Emotions Reports to determine how they correlate with happiness metrics. I anticipate finding that increased levels of growth mindset, psychological safety, emotional intelligence, and grit correlate to increased happiness. Overall, the positive impact of developing these would point to the importance of increasing their prominence in education. This is an implication for (1) public policy related to education and (2) private education, as happens in job training and home settings. More specifically, it would be worth exploring how to best educate people to develop these traits and skills, and at what stages of life, this learning would be most impactful.