Team member Gail Carmichael, a PhD candidate in the School of Computer Science, says: “Through our research, we eventually want to develop techniques, tools and technology to help game writers create and run more interesting stories in their video games.”

Carmichael’s thesis supervisor, Carleton Associate Professor David Mould, is a network investigator for GRAND, a federally-funded Network of Centres of Excellence (NCE) project called Believe that is looking at believable characters, behaviours and stories in story-based games. “David is one of the major reasons I chose to do my PhD at Carleton, given his interest and knowledge of games” says Carmichael. “Plus, everyone in the School of Computer Science is extremely friendly and supportive from the staff to the professors.”

As a founder of Carleton’s Women in Science and Engineering group and a blog called The Female perspective of Computer Science (http://compscigail.blogspot.ca/), Carmichael was interested in developing her own game designed to encourage middle school girls to consider computer science as a good career choice while teaching them real computer science concepts.

The result is Gram’s House. Originally developed by a team of Carleton researchers, Carmichael is now working with researchers and an international educational games company on a grant application to fund professional development of the game prototype.

In the game, a player takes on the role of a computer scientist who is trying to outfit a room in a retirement home with appropriate technology for her aging grandmother. The player collects and activates the technology by solving computer science-related puzzles.

“As research has shown that middle school-aged girls have a preference for puzzle games and that they care about making a social difference, our prototype incorporates both of these ideas,” says Carmichael.

Carmichael recently delivered a talk about the role of women in technology at the Sandy Hill Women TEDX Talk event. TED is a nonprofit devoted to “Ideas Worth Spreading”. “It was an honour to be asked to speak and to share my love of computer science,” Carmichael says.

Carmichael, who is a contract instructor, teaching assistant and avid photographer (you can check out her work on Flickr) is also a mother. Baby Molly was born a year ago in  December.

Says Gover: “Experiencing the impact that organizational change has on people in a firsthand way was very eye opening. I realized I was very interested in change management, or change ‘mismanagement’ but wanted to investigate it as a researcher, not suffer through it as an employee.”

So Gover applied for and was accepted into a fast track PhD program with the Sprott School of Business.

Prof. Linda Duxbury

For her thesis, Gover is researching change management in the healthcare industry. Both of her parents are nurses so this field comes naturally.

She is focusing on a small rural hospital located about an hour outside Ottawa.

Gover says that, in 2009, the hospital built a new state-of-the- art facility and, around that time, asked Dr. Duxbury for help to improve staff satisfaction.

Gover and Duxbury have conducted focus groups, interviews and surveys at the hospital. They have received a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to continue their research.

So far, the researchers have identified some challenging dynamics between different occupational groups at the hospital (i.e. managers, nurses, physicians).

“We have found that organizational change may act as a trigger event for underlying rifts at organizations,” shares Gover. “There may be additional sources of social identity, aside from one’s professional identity, that can affect the social dynamics at an organization – in this case, location of residence (city vs. local community) was a huge factor that appeared to impact how individuals perceived and were impacted by the change. Most senior managers are from the city whereas most staff (nurses, physicians, etc.) are from the nearby rural region, and this appeared to influence how the groups perceived one another.”

Gover hopes that her research will help healthcare organizations deal more effectively with organizational change. She plans on pursuing a career in this field when she graduates.

“And that’s where I found Lord Byron,” says Peacocke. “There were statues and mentions of him everywhere, as he was a major figure in the Greek War of Independence and died in Greece in 1824, so I began re-reading his work, and knew exactly what I wanted to do next.”

Peacocke came to Carleton to pursue a master’s degree with the Department of English Language and Literature. She is now a PhD candidate. Her thesis investigates museum-going as a vital part of British Romantic literature and culture.

Once she started thinking about proto-museums and museum-like settings, Peacocke says she was seeing them everywhere in Romantic Literature.

In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: “Elizabeth and Darcy’s relationship rather hinges on public museums. Their courtship finally starts to shed its awkwardness and combativeness when they meet unexpectedly at his stately home. Elizabeth is only able to be there because Pemberley is open to visitors, as many stately homes were from the 1790s on. They were precursors to museums and art galleries as we know them today.”

In Frances Burney’s The Wanderer: “The heroine is on the run, and she is so terrified of kidnappers that she doesn’t even recognize Stonehenge when she sees it. The only moment when she is genuinely free of anxiety comes when she is entranced by the sight of a painting in a stately home, Wilton, which admits visitors. That was a very telling moment, because we’re used to the idea that the Romantics worshipped nature and admired ruins – so for nature and ruins to exert less power to soothe than a painting made me sit up and take notice.”

In Keats’s sonnet called To Haydon [about his friend and artist Benjamin Robert Haydon]: “Apparently Haydon was baffled and a bit annoyed that Keats didn’t utter a word when they went to visit the Parthenon Marbles [sculptures in the British Museum] together in 1817 – so Keats had to write to explain that it was the sheer astonishment and rapture of seeing them that had silenced him.”

Peacocke’s research also looks at the importance of museums, as institutions, during the Romantic period. She explains that a lot of changes in museums and display came from a direct reaction to the French Revolution, which began the Romantic Period. “Because the British constitutional monarchy needed to demonstrate its superiority to French republicanism, the Louvre’s opening in 1793 prompted British aristocrats to open their collections to the public (like at Pemberley) and the state to increase its museum activity. It is as if all of Britain came to an agreement that museums would serve as a metaphor for how the nation thought of itself, at home and in relation to its arch-enemy.”

So those who think of museums as just containing dusty old relics, Peacocke says: “They aren’t just missing the party – they’re missing the revolution as well.”

Peacocke hopes to graduate from Carleton in the near future. Reflecting on her time here, she says she is quite delighted with her experience. “There is such a rich array of talent at Carleton. Among other things, I’ve had a fantastic gig as a research assistant to a prominent Renaissance scholar, Chancellor’s Professor Donald Beecher. I learned a great deal about the era and really honed my bibliographic and research skills. We’ve also had an excellent visiting speakers’ program. And my thesis advisor, Prof. Julie Murray, is a brilliant scholar, with an encyclopaedic knowledge of 18th-century literature and up-to-the-minute knowledge of developments in literary criticism.”

Says Peacocke: “Graduating is going to be a wrench, but I know I’ll always be welcome at Carleton and I’ll never have to leave it behind completely.”

Eli MacLaren

Alex Wong and Eli MacLaren, Postdoctoral Fellows at Carleton, are both Banting scholars. As the latest issue of Research Works notes, they are both adding prestige to Carleton.

The article is available HERE

Wong recently presented his research at the Science Café. A short video about his presentation is below.

Your favourite filmmaker may have nightmares about a place called the uncanny valley.

Japanese roboticist Masahiro Mori put forward the theory of the Uncanny Valley in 1970. It states that the closer in appearance a robot is to human the greater positive emotional response a human will have, until there is a point where there is a sudden drop and humans become repulsed by these creations. However, as the likeness continues to increase the positive response grows again.

Arguably it’s why cartoonish figures like Nintendo’s Mario and the vaguely human eyes and movements of Disney’s Wall-E so effectively encourage our empathy, while the sluggish movement of zombies and certain images of human characters in video games creep us out.

“The classic example everyone points to is The Polar Express,” explains cognitive psychology master’s student Tyler Burleigh. In this 2004 family film actor Tom Hanks plays many of the characters, each have animated features superimposed onto Hanks’ performance. The movie received mixed reviews. The characters felt off to many, like a creepy wax museum, says Burleigh.

The Uncanny Valley has slippery slopes and is a very real concern for movie makers, video game designers and roboticists. However, there is a definite divide in the field of those who believe in the theory and those who don’t.

Burleigh tackled the theory for his master’s thesis. He had participants look at 49 different renderings of various 3D model faces. Participants were asked to rate on a scale of one to seven their answers to questions such as ‘How human is this face?’, ‘How eerie?’, ‘How scary?’.

“I went into it excited to see the Uncanny Valley theory proved. I mean, it’s a sexy theory, right? It’s fascinating. I really wanted to find the Uncanny Valley in my data so I could tell that story, but it didn’t work out. That wasn’t the story the data told.”

Burleigh’s findings defied the Uncanny Valley. Why? Burleigh says it is because the theory is just too simple. When we are repulsed by an image, find it eerie or uncomfortable, there are more factors at play then just human likeness. This could include such factors as an evolutionary reaction against possible contamination when viewing a perfectly human looking face that also looks slightly sick.

Although the Uncanny Valley theory may be too simple, the effect is undeniably real. “The Uncanny Valley is a real, very serious concern for designers,” says Burleigh. “It is a theory that has become dogmatic in people’s mind. My research shows this is probably to their detriment.”

Burleigh cautions that adhering too closely to the theory may keep designers from taking chances and using their full creativity. Better understandings of the effect and how to mitigate and even eliminate it will provide designers with better tools when it comes to building their creations.

Burleigh is just one example of a Carleton student researching digital media, one of four areas of research focus for the university.

The earth sciences student was honoured in June with the award by the Association of Canadian Universities for Northern Studies as part of the Canadian Northern Studies Trust (CNST) awards program. The program aims to develop a group of scholars and scientists with northern experience while enhancing post-secondary education opportunities for northern Canadians. Mumford’s scholarship is part of a total of $535,000 of awards granted by the CNST in 2011-’12.

“I’m excited to be selected for this award,” says Mumford, who completed his undergraduate and graduate degrees in geology at the University of New Brunswick. “Its multidisciplinary nature makes it very prestigious and I’m fortunate to have been awarded it.”

Mumford focuses his studies on the Nechalacho granite deposit at the Blachford Lake Intrusive Suite in the Northwest Territories, where he is currently completing field work. The lake is home to one of Canada’s greatest sources of rare-earth elements (REE), a vital material in green technologies such as hybrid cars, windmills and LED lights.

According to Mumford, 97 per cent of the world supply of REE is owned by China but since the country recently began restricting the export of the resource, the world has been forced to find other sources of it.

“I hope to create a genetic model for the formation of the entire Blachford Lake Intrusive Suite,” says Mumford. “This information will then be used to guide future exploration for REE and hopefully reduce the dependence on China’s exports.”

The 28-year-old, who has been studying earth sciences at Carleton since September 2009, says the CNST scholarship will allow him the freedom to focus on his studies.

“I’ve been able to turn down summer employment so I can work throughout the year on my research,” says Mumford. “I also plan on taking a break from TA work during my last semester so that I can focus on writing my thesis in a timely fashion and get as many publications out as I can.”

Brian Cousens, associate professor and graduate supervisor in Carleton’s Department of Earth Sciences, is Mumford’s PhD supervisor and says he couldn’t think of anyone more deserving for this award. Cousens adds that the honour will give Mumford “instant credibility in Arctic science.”

“Thomas has a tremendous work ethic. His organizational skills are superb. Thomas comes to me with progress reports, has already thought out his next research step and then comes to me for advice and reassurance. He is a dream student.”

Mumford expected to finish his work at Blachford Lake in July and then planned to take a float plane a few hundred kilometers north where he plans to camp and examine more rock with high REE potential. He will then attend the International Applied Geochemical Symposium Finland in August, an opportunity the CNST scholarship has made possible. He plans to return to Carleton in September for the academic year.

As part of her masters degree research, Carleton student Tara Jones will pilot the UAV from the ground during trials at York University.

The project aims to develop 3D technology that will provide a detailed picture of what’s happening in any city – whether it’s a concert or a crime, a traffic jam or the creative route a driver takes to avoid it.

Weighing just 1.3 kilograms, the Aeryon Scout UAV flies no more than 60 metres off the ground with a video camera focused on buildings, walkways, trees and the activity around them.

“UAVs are a promising alternative to conventional aircraft for low-altitude survey applications,” said Samson. “Our project involves capturing aerial video using a UAV. The video is later converted into 3D images. The project aims to demonstrate that 3D data produced in this manner can be further processed to discriminate between natural and man-made objects.”

The research may have future applications in online mapping tools such as Google Streetview or Google Earth.

“Mapping of urban environments is typically done from aircraft flying high above the city, or vehicles on the ground (i.e. Google Streetview), but a lot of the important details lie somewhere in between,” says James Elder, a professor in both the Department of Computer Science & Engineering and the Department of Psychology at York University. “This vehicle can acquire the high-resolution imagery of building facades required to reconstruct the detailed 3D structure of our cities.”

The research team has developed proprietary computer vision algorithms and a geospatial web mapping system to detect and track people and vehicles in real-time video streamed from city cameras and then project them as avatars into 3D city models. This allows the life of the city to be experienced in a natural 3D context and viewed from any angle through web browsers. This is augmented by visual intelligence about the scene – for example, recognition of objects and activities, as well as things like vehicle speed.

The larger goal of the project is to develop a system that gives people a window into the life of a city, whether it is an urban planner watching how people are using city sidewalks, police or security officials trying to prevent crimes, or a tourist wondering what is happening at Parliament Hill.

The UAV project is sponsored by the GEOIDE Network, a major initiative funded by the federal government’s Networks of Centres of Excellence and the provincial government’s Ontario Centres of Excellence.

The UAV component of the project is a collaboration between Professor Samson’s lab at Carleton, Professor Elder’s Human & Computer Vision Lab at York’s Centre for Vision Research and Professor Gunho Sohn’s lab in the Department of Earth and Space Science and Engineering in York’s Faculty of Science & Engineering. Researchers from four other Canadian universities are also involved in the project, along with Aeryon Labs of Waterloo, which designs and manufactures the Scout UAV, and Neptec of Ottawa, which is providing 3D structure from motion software technology.

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For more information:
Chris Cline
Media Relations
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 1391
Christopher_Cline@carleton.ca

May Chazan and her adviser, Prof. Mike Brklacich

Currently, sub-Saharan Africa faces the devastation of HIV/AIDS and as a result 14.8 million children under the age of 18 have been orphaned. After burying their own children, grandmothers step up and raise their grandchildren, with no support. In Canada, nearly 10,000 older women have mobilized due to the Grandmothers Campaign to provide these women much needed assistance.

The Canadian Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign was launched in March 2006 and has now grown to 240 grandmother member groups.

Chazan will be facilitating a roundtable discussion at Women’s Worlds 2011, July 3 to 7, co-hosted by Carleton University, where members will critically examine the solidarity movement of elderly women and its implication for understanding older women’s advocacy work.

Women’s Worlds 2011 is the largest gathering of women from around the world in Canada’s history. Co-hosted by Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, this 11th installation in the Women’s Worlds series will be celebrating its 30th anniversary by examining women’s unique experiences with globalization and its impacts. More details are available at: http://www.womensworlds.ca/.

Chazan will be defending her PhD thesis in the fall and has recently been awarded a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada post-doctorate fellowship. In 2006, Chazan was awarded a Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation Doctoral Scholarship. She has been a research associate at the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division in Durban for eight years. She has also facilitated leadership groups with street kids, participated in cancer, mental illness and AIDS support groups and taught at-risk students.

Carleton University is a pioneer in the field of women’s and gender studies. Carleton established the Joint Chair in Women’s Studies 25 years ago with the University of Ottawa and created the renowned Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies in 1987. The university offers both specific academic programs and takes an integrated approach to this field of study by offering courses across all disciplines – from Canadian studies, communications, history and human rights to sociology, social work, psychology and political science. The university is proud to co-host Women’s Worlds 2011 to foster discourse and share knowledge about key issues that impact women around the world.

–Written by Tegan Ford

Webster is the science officer for the team. He will be stationed in Resolute Bay, Nunavut, for 30 days while his teammates row 724 kilometres from Resolute to their final destination. He is also the first reserve, so if one of the rowers is injured, he will be helicoptered in as a replacement.

The trip is not just an adventure; the team wants to draw attention to the dramatic impact of climate change on the North. “It’s completely mind-blowing to think it is possible to hop on a boat and cruise to the MNP,” remarks Webster. “Where is all that ice? This extreme polar ocean row should make people sit up and think about the changing Arctic.”

Once the rowers depart on approximately Aug. 1, Webster and another person will be touchstones for the team, offering regular weather updates that could be critical to the crew, while acting as point persons onsite to help update the world about their progress. They will also conduct science research to test the salinity of water samples gathered by the team. “If it’s low, that means there has been a lot of ice melt,” explains Webster.

“I wanted to do this because I will be marrying my passions – science, environmental conservation and rowing,” says Webster. He also admits that he is attracted to extreme events, having already participated in expeditions to Kenya and competed in the half Ironman competition.

Webster is pursuing his doctorate under the supervision of Biology professors Tom Sherratt and Jean-Guy Godin. “Richard has shown boundless energy and passion for his research on how insects camouflage themselves from predators,” says Sherratt. “We know he will bring this same enthusiasm to this Arctic adventure, while helping to highlight an important global issue.”

The trek is the brainchild of adventurer Jock Wishart, who is the only person to have walked unsupported to a Pole and rowed across an ocean.

Webster applied over a year ago when he heard that Wishart was looking for people like explorer Ernest Shackleton’s original Antarctic crew:  “Men wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful, honour and recognition in case of success.”

Wishart says Webster is “a good oarsman and outdoors man and never takes ‘No’ for an answer. Extremely committed, his scientific background and specific knowledge of Canadian issues makes him ideal for the appointment as Scientific Officer.”

Webster was thrilled to find out that he had beat out almost 300 other people to win a spot on the team. Since that time, he has been doing daily training, often working out with the Carleton University rowing team, having been a former member.

The “Old Pulteney Row to the Pole” is sponsored by the Old Pulteney distillery. You can follow the progress of the expedition at this site: http://www.rowtothepole.com/the-diary/.

The North Magnetic Pole is the point at which the Earth’s magnetic field points vertically downwards. The first expedition to reach the MNP was led by James Clark Ross, who found it at Cape Adelaide on the Boothia Peninsula on June 1, 1831. But the MNP actually moves. Today, it is located at 78°35.7N 104°11.9W / 78.595°N 104.1983°W.

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For more information:
Lin Moody
Media Relations, Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 8705
lin_moody@carleton.ca

“By taking a feminist approach to their research, these young geographers have analyzed how inequalities are perpetuated in particular places and spaces and then looked for interventions that could lead to solutions to these real-world problems,” says Klodawsky. “We’re hoping that this will spark a strong debate at Women’s Worlds.”

The geographers are:

*         Leonore Evans, who graduated with her MA in 2009 and now works for the City of Ottawa. She wrote her thesis on how youths’ perceptions of safety influenced the ways in which they accessed their neighbourhood.

*         Master’s student Jocelyn Plane. Her research focuses on previously homeless women living in Ottawa and what places they feel have most influenced their quality of life.

*         PhD student Asli Duru.  She is looking at the experience of Turkish working-class women and the impact on their lives when local food markets in Istanbul were moved or changed by the local government.

*         Doctoral student Margaret Mizzi. She is researching the role that the Maltese government has played in creating conflicting views of local women and the impact this has had on their lives.

Leonore Evans
Evans’ research looks at how young people living in an Ottawa neighbourhood think about safety and the role their perceptions play in whether or how they use specific public places. She notes that “public safety initiatives do not generally include young people in their decision-making processes although they affect youths, sometimes disproportionately.” She then critically examines these initiatives, from the point of view of the young people she interviewed. In her presentation, she will describe how some youths were engaged through their involvement in youth safety audits. She will explain how the outcomes of these audits have changed their perceptions about living in their community.

Jocelyn Plane
Many of the studies that have looked at the significance of neighbourhoods in relation to health and quality of life have focused almost exclusively on the “not in my backyard” sentiments of residents who resist or are concerned about living near emergency shelters and transition housing. Plane decided to look at this issue through the eyes of previously homeless women who now live in a supportive housing community in Ottawa. Her study explores these connections through a participatory “photovoice” project in which participants took photographs of places in their neighbourhood that they decided had most influenced their quality of life. Her presentation will focus on one specific urban park in Ottawa.

Asli Duru
Her research addresses changes in weekly public markets in Istanbul – a Turkish city of approximately 13 million. Public markets are a major urban food network and the recent relocation or redevelopmentof these markets have had critical consequences on the livelihood of women who are core providers for their families. Duru will discuss the explicit and implicit ways in which local governance measures have enhanced or limited livelihood resources and food accessibility for residents and the impact this has had on their lives.

Margaret Mizzi
In the last 10 years, the mass media in Malta has been repeating a message promoted by the Maltese government that local women are the most economically inactive in the entire European Union. “This messaging has turned the working status of Maltese women into a problem on a national and European scale,” says Mizzi.  Her research has investigated the role that the Maltese government has played in creating conflicting ideas between the need for increasing numbers of female Maltese workers and a traditional portrayal of the same women. She is also conducting ethnographic work with local women to map their daily work in the public and private spheres.

The Women’s Worlds presentation is on Wednesday, July 6 from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. in Room 9161 of the Desmarais Building at the University of Ottawa.  This session is open to media and conference delegates.

The WW congress takes place in Ottawa-Gatineau, from July 3 to 7. This will be the largest gathering of women from around the world in Canada’s history. Co-hosted by Carleton University and the University of Ottawa, this 11th installation in the Women’s Worlds series will be celebrating its 30th anniversary by examining women’s unique experiences with globalization and its impacts.

Carleton University is a pioneer in the field of women’s and gender studies. The university established the Joint Chair in Women’s Studies 25 years ago with the University of Ottawa and created the renowned Pauline Jewett Institute of Women’s and Gender Studies in 1987. Carleton offers both specific academic programs and takes an integrated approach to this field of study by offering courses across all disciplines – from Canadian studies, communications, history and human rights to sociology, social work, psychology and political science. The university is proud to co-host Women’s Worlds 2011 to foster discourse and share knowledge about key issues that impact women around the world.

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For more information:
Lin Moody
Media Relations
Carleton University
613-520-2600, ext. 8705