The opportunity came up for me to teach a workshop on Interactive Teaching in Actuarial Science to university Lecturers in Indonesia through the READI project. (READI stands for Risk management, Economic sustainability, and Actuarial science Development in Indonesia and is a joint venture with the Indonesian and Canadian governments to build needed actuarial expertise and capacity.)
I was invited by the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto to deliver a workshop on mental health innovation as a part of their 2019 Pushing the Paradigm conference series.
Interdisciplinary students and professionals were gathered in teams of 4-5 to define a problem that was achievable given...
The GI Game Jam is a series of tri-annual “game jams” held by the Games Institute at the University of Waterloo to celebrate the game-making community in the Kitchener-Waterloo region. I volunteered on the GI Game Jam committee during my MSc career and produced a series of posters to advertise for the event with intentions of attracting greater participant (jammer) diversity.
As a Faculty member, it’s easy to forget what it’s like to be a student. I’m not talking about late night assignments, last minute study sessions, and cramped living spaces; I’m talking about forming communities of common interest, developing lifelong friendships, and exploring your passions.
In my 12 years as a faculty member, I have been involved in FASS (the Faculty, Alumni, Staff, and Students theatre company...
Intrepid Podcast Episode 79, where I discuss the future of terrorism studies: https://www.intrepidpodcast.com/podcast/2019/3/8/ep-79-views-from-the-shwa-far-right-extremism-and-the-future-of-terrorism-studies
And on Episode 27 of the Canada and the World Podcast, talking about, well, everything (it was a snow day.): https://www.opencanada.org/features/canada-and-world-ep-27-state-union-oscars-and-everything-else/
In communications with Unicef Mongolia and Dr. Plinio Morita of the Ubiquitous Computing Lab at the University of Waterloo, my colleague Marcela Costa and I advised the development of LIFEHACK, an educational simulation game made by youth in Ulaanbataar around sexual health, drug use, and other topics. The result was an example of global collaboration using local knowledge of the startups and the software development life cycle (SDLC) in Kitchener-Waterloo, and local knowledge of youth experiences in Ulaanbataar to co-create health products. The project was presented at a ...
In August 2018 I had the immense pleasure of attending my first live action role-playing game at Bothwell School of Witchcraft. Everyone was given a character to play, and the action unfolded over 3 days based on the group’s collective improvisation skills as well as the groundwork laid by the organizers. I thought I was merely vacationing while indulging in my fascination with a certain fictional British magical boarding school, but it turns out even in a real castle in East Sussex there is pedagogical inspiration to be found.
I attended the 2017 Actuarial Research Conference (ARC) and was fascinated by a talk that argued insurance companies should consider firearm ownership as a rating factor. Firearm presence has a stronger impact on claims than many other factors that are used. The reason for its absence is not efficacy but politics: there is opposition from groups that have a vested interest in more firearms being sold. I was intrigued and wanted to weave this kind of topic into my teaching.
Around the same time, I was finishing up the Fundamentals of Actuarial Practice modules, which examine...
