Students showcase their Undergraduate Research Opportunities projects

After spending a summer immersed in research projects, student participants in Ryerson’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities (URO) program recently had the opportunity to share their findings at a virtual showcase attended by their classmates and supervisors. 

The annual URO program offers students a paid summer opportunity to be paired with a faculty mentor and contribute to a scholarly, research or creative (SRC) project. This year was the second time the showcase took place online, and students were asked to summarize their work in just three minutes. The week-long event was held September 20 to 24. Almost 60 students, hailing from six Ryerson faculties, shared their research across five separate, live sessions. In addition to the URO students, the event featured a participant from the Undergraduate Student Research Awards (USRA), which is run by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC). 

During his introductory comments, Steven N. Liss, Ryerson’s vice-president, research and innovation, acknowledged the vital contributions undergraduate students make to SRC activities at the university and noted the tremendous opportunities these programs can provide.

“I hope your experience this summer has provided you with a wealth of learning and skills, but also that it has shaped how you see your academic future,” he said. “Wherever you look to take your next steps, I’m sure you will draw on your skills and your exposure to the SRC environment – that those will be helpful as you pursue your career, regardless of what pathway you choose to follow.”

Below are some of the projects presented at the URO online showcase. 

Liberation on the Dance Floor: Queer Toronto Nightlife from 1960-1989

Compiling a digital history of queer Toronto nightlife spanning from the 1960s to the end of the 1980s, English student Ross Hutchison helped to create an interactive map (external link)  that explores the spaces where members of the LGBTQ2S+ communities gathered and enjoyed popular music together. 

“The creation of these spaces led to community and also activism and uprising,” said Hutchison, who found that the opportunity to collectively enjoy the music led to a shift in the landscape of queer culture in Toronto. Research included reviewing archival materials, books, retrospectives and even listening to DJ sets and the music that was played, which was a particular highlight. 

Interior Archipelago

With the pandemic bringing increased attention to the interior spaces we spend time in, Alice Huang, an interior design student, participated in a project called Interior Archipelago. A collaborative effort between researchers at Ryerson, the Glasgow School of Art and the Academy of Arts & Design at Tsinghua University, the project solicited postcard contributions representing different experiences of lockdown. More than 300 postcards were received and exhibited on the project’s website (external link, opens in new window)  as well as at Tsinghua University. 

“It was incredible to see the lockdown through all of these unique perspectives and we felt it was important to share these experiences,” said Huang, noting there are also hopes to exhibit Interior Archipelago at the Ryerson campus and to carry out ongoing research. 

No Place to Die: Re-Assessing Architecture & Memory in the Cemetery Crises

How can the living and the dead co-exist in urban contexts where land supply is dwindling? Lena Ma has developed innovative designs to address issues of space supply, integration and the rising costs of burial. 

“To harmonize the living and dead spaces together, I propose to integrate some cemeteries within unused spaces of the city,” said the architectural science student in presenting Memory Lane – a design that capitalizes on laneways to place cemeteries while also incorporating an agriculture system. Ma also presented other designs, one for coffins made of biodegradable plastic that could be floated on water and offer an additional walking landscape, and another for a digital cemetery. 

Advancing the Analysis of Children’s Rights

Steven Gibson, a child and youth care student now pursuing a master’s degree at Ryerson, focused his undergraduate summer research on children’s rights, as defined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. “It’s important to understand that children and young people continue to be marginalized,” he said. “And while there are diverse experiences globally, for diverse children, there’s unique commonalities due to their social identity that causes marginalization.”

Through the analysis of interviews with stakeholders from various sectors, Gibson examined the effects that business has on children and how a children’s rights framework might be applied to its charitable activities. He also contributed a proposed chapter to a handbook on impact assessment, working with international experts to overcome the “adult-centric” systems that organizations typically fail to consider when evaluating the impact of their operations.

Bacterial Filamentation as a Protective Mechanism Against Innate Immunity 

Natasha Porco, a biomedical sciences student, spent her summer researching urinary tract infections (UTIs). UTIs are caused by the common uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) bacteria. If not treated effectively, UPEC bacteria colonize the bladder before travelling to the kidneys and bloodstream, which can, in some cases, lead to septic shock. She estimates that UTIs affect more than 150 million people annually and that 50 to 60 per cent of women develop a UTI in their lifetime. 

Porco’s research looked at how immune systems respond to UTIs, with a particular focus on cells that have become elongated – a process known as filamentation. Filamentation seems to give an advantage to UPEC bacteria so it’s important to understand why this is the case. “With such a high prevalence of urinary tract infections in society and with the rising rate of antibiotic resistance, understanding the pathogenesis of the bacteria that causes UTIs is important if we want to develop new novel treatments,” she said.

Public Sector Accounting on Environmental-Related Items and Climate Change 

Accounting student Melissa Dadouch’s summer research project focused on the challenge of climate change accounting within the public sector. Just like in the private sphere, local governments are grappling with the risks and benefits of action or inaction on climate-related issues. “A failure to acknowledge and report on these issues is not only disruptive to the environment, but also puts the burden onto taxpayers as climate change is a public welfare issue that the government ends up having to deal with,” she said.

While environmental, social and governance (ESG) reporting has become more commonplace, there seems to be significant variation in standards across the board. Using guidelines from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) as a basis, Dadouch analyzed data from 45 of the largest municipalities in Canada to rank how each municipality reports on climate-related issues. She found that there is an urgent need to implement consistent climate accounting standards in order to calculate costs more accurately, improve transparency and, ultimately, drive societal change in this area.

Full list of projects presented at the 2021 URO showcase

Learn more about the URO program at Ryerson. 

Related links:

Students present work from Undergraduate Research Opportunities program at online showcase (October, 2020)

Find out more about student research at Ryerson