virtual environments Archives | Research & Innovation

New directors appointed to five research centres

fmaquito — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Five 91��ɫ professors have been appointed directors at 91��ɫ research centres.

The new directors are Professor Colin Coates, director of the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies (RCCS); Professor Laurence Harris, director of the Centre for Vision Research (CVR); Professor Christina Kraenzle, director of the Canadian Centre for German & European Studies (CCGES); Professor David Mutimer, director of the Centre for International & Security Studies (YCISS); and Professor Lisa Philipps, director of the Centre for Public Policy & Law (YCPPL).��

“On behalf of the 91��ɫ research community, I would like to congratulate Professors Coates, Harris, Kraenzle, Mutimer and Philipps on their appointments,” said Robert Haché, 91��ɫ's vice-president research & innovation. “Their leadership expertise will be essential to further strengthening the unique and exciting opportunities for interdisciplinary research, collaborations and partnerships at 91��ɫ’s research centres and institutes.”

Colin Coates (left), Canada Research Chair in Cultural Landscapes, is also professor in the Canadian Studies program at Glendon College and president of the Canadian Studies Network-Réseau d’études canadiennes. His research examines political culture in New France and the history of Canadian utopias. He also conducts research in the area of environmental history, and is an executive member of the Network in Canadian History & Environment – Nouvelle initiative canadienne en histoire de l’environnement, funded by the Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Coates has co-edited and authored several books including, Introduction aux études canadiennes: histoires, identités et cultures (with Professor Geoffrey Ewen, Glendon) and Visions: the Canadian History Modules Project (with Professor Marcel Martel, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, along with four colleagues from other universities), Majesty in Canada: Essays on the Role of Royalty among others. Coates won the Lionel Groulx-Yves Saint-Germain Foundation’s prize for Heroines and History – Representations of Madeleine de Verchères and Laura Secord (co-authored with Cecilia Morgan of OISE).

Laurence Harris (right) is a professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health, a member of the graduate programs in Kinesiology & Health Science and in Biology, and has served as chair of the Psychology Department. He is the director the Multisensory Integration Laboratory at 91��ɫ, which investigates how information from visual, auditory, vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile senses is combined by the brain to create our perception of body and space. Applications of his research include the design of virtual environments and improving perception in situations where sensory information is impoverished, such as in the unusual environments of underwater or in space, in ageing or in clinical conditions such as partial blindness or Parkinson’s disease. Recently, Harris ran an experiment on the International Space Station looking at astronauts’ perception of orientation. He is the author of more than 100 scientific articles and has edited nine books on topics pertaining to vision including Vision in 3D Environments, Cortical Mechanisms of Vision, Seeing Spatial Form, and Levels of Perception. He is editor-in-chief of the journal Seeing and Perceiving: a journal of multisensory science.

Christina Kraenzle (left) is a professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures & Linguistics (DLLL) in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies. She has served as a CCGES affiliate since 2004 and been a member of the centre’s executive committee since 2005 through her role as the coordinator of the German Studies Program within DLLL. Kraenzle’s research explores modern German literature, film and culture, with a focus on transnational cultural production, migration, travel and globalization. Her recent publications include Mapping Channels Between Ganges and Rhein: German-Indian Cross-Cultural Relations (with Jörg Esleben and Sukanya Kulkarni, 2008) as well as articles in The German Quarterly, German Life and Letters, Transit: A Journal of Travel, Migration and Multiculturalism in the German-Speaking World, and the volume Searching for Sebald: Photography after W. G. Sebald.

David Mutimer (right), a professor in the Department of Political Science, is also the founding editor of Critical Studies on Security and the editor of The Canadian Annual Review of Politics and Public Affairs. He has been a member of YCISS since 1987 and has previously served as its deputy director. Mutimer was also a visiting professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and Newcastle University in the United Kingdom (UK), as well as a principal research fellow in the Department of Peace Studies at the University of Bradford in the UK. Mutimer’s research considers issues of contemporary international security through lenses provided by critical social theory and explores the reproduction of security in and through popular culture. His research has focused on various aspects of weapons production and control, and more recently on the politics of the global war on terror, and of the regional wars around the world which are being fought by Canada and its allies. Mutimer is presently leading a SSHRC-funded international research project on arms export controls. His recent published work includes journal articles in Studies in Social Justice, The Cambridge Review of International Affairs and Contemporary Security Policy among others.

Lisa Philipps (left) has been a faculty member at Osgoode Hall Law School since 1996. Prior to that, she held appointments in the faculties of law at the University of Victoria and the University of British Columbia, and has held visiting professorships at Melbourne Law School, University College London and the University of Toronto among other institutions. She served as associate dean research, graduate studies & institutional relations at Osgoode from 2009 to 2011. Philipps' research focuses on tax law, budgets and feminist legal studies. She has published widely on topics, including fiscal transparency, income splitting, gender budgeting, the distributional impact of tax cuts, the tax treatment of unpaid work, charitable tax incentives and more. Most recently she published two co-edited books on Tax Expenditures: State of the Art and Challenging Gender Inequality in Tax Policy Making: Comparative Perspectives.��

In all, 91��ɫ lists 29 research centres and institutes.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Professor Yvonne Bohr to direct LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence & Conflict Resolution

fmaquito — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

The Faculty of Health has appoointed 91��ɫ psychology Professor as the director of the LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence & Conflict Resolution.

Right: Yvonne Bohr

As the new director of the LaMarsh Centre for Research on Violence & Conflict Resolution, Bohr is on familiar ground. As an executive member of the LaMarsh Centre since 2004, she has actively participated in the redevelopment of the centre’s mission and vision. Her research encompasses issues of mental health and well-being among young children, and she actively engages the community both as collaborators in the research and for the mobilization of knowledge.

"A real strength of Dr. Bohr’s work experience, in light of the vision and mission of the LaMarsh Centre, is the breadth of her experience in both international and local partnership, both with other academics and with community members,” says Harvey Skinner, dean of the Faculty of Health. “Her existing partnerships, and her knowledge of how to build and sustain partnerships, is consistent with the LaMarsh Centre's goals to influence policy, engage the community, and build local and global learning networks.”

A clinical psychologist and psychology professor, Bohr is engaged in academic collaborations with colleagues at the Sapienza University of Rome and several centres in Canada and the United States. She also continues to lead an infant and child mental health team at , a community treatment clinic in East Toronto.

Other Faculty of Health Appointments

Claire Mallette has also been appointed the new director of 91��ɫ’s School of Nursing and Angelo Belcastro is now chair of the School of Kinesiology & Health Science.

Left: Claire Mallette

Prior to becoming director of the School of Nursing, Mallette was director of nursing education, placement & development at the University Health Network in Toronto, while holding an adjunct appointment in the Faculty of Nursing at 91��ɫ and at the University of Toronto. Mallette was also the chief nursing officer and director of professional practice at the Workplace Safety & Insurance Board of Ontario from 2002 to 2006. She has held various teaching positions at the University of Toronto, McMaster University, Sheridan College, John Abbott College and the University of Alberta Hospital School of Nursing, from 1987 to 2002, as well as staff nurse positions in hospitals in Montreal, Ontario and Alberta.

In addition, Mallette has been the principal or co-investigator of six funded grants or programs totalling approximately $1.4 million dollars for research examining educational methodologies, virtual worlds, simulation, and new nursing graduate competencies and decision-making.

“Mallette has extensive experience and strengths as an academic nurse leader, educator and researcher,” says Skinner.

Right: Angelo Belcastro

Prior to joining 91��ɫ as the new chair of the School of Kinesiology & Health Science, Belcastro was the research director in the Faculty of Kinesiology at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton. He has taken over the position from Professor Ira Jacobs.

“Dr. Belcastro is internationally recognized for his scholarship, is an effective educator and has outstanding leadership qualities and experience,” says Skinner.

In addition, Belcastro has held senior administrative roles in a variety of academic settings, including as director of the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of British Columbia, founding dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Western Ontario, vice-president academic at the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, and vice-president academic & provost at Royal Roads University. He also has extensive experience in academic planning, visioning and program execution, says Skinner.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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Augmented Reality Lab holding Open House for virtual art and technology displays March 10

fmaquito — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

The Augmented Reality Lab in the Faculty of Fine Arts opens its doors to the 91��ɫ community March 10 for interactive demonstrations of augmented reality (AR) and GPS locative media research projects in development. From 11am to 3pm, visitors will have the opportunity to experience projections on FogScreen, immersive virtual environments and other innovative applications for AR technology.

Directed by film Professor Caitlin Fisher, Canada Research Chair in Digital Culture, 91��ɫ's is at the forefront in working with both established and emerging technologies. As part of the , it is dedicated to producing innovative research methods, interfaces and content that challenge cinematic and literary conventions and aim to enhance how people interact with their physical environment and with each other.

Left: Caitlin Fisher

The lab offers artists and designers the opportunity to explore new screen technologies, approaches and techniques through production and theoretical study of this emerging medium. Lab participants work interactively and across disciplinary boundaries, particularly film and computer science.

A wide variety of projects will be on display at the open house.

Handheld City is an online streaming experience developed by the AR Lab for the city of Toronto’s virtual museum project, which launched March 6 (Toronto’s 176th birthday). Using AR as a storytelling device, the researchers organized and animated the digital objects in the museum collection and created an interesting way to interact with the objects and access the accompanying text.

Right: Handheld City was developed for Toronto's virtual museum project

The Amazing Cinemagician is an interactive "rfid" (radio frequency identification – like a barcode) video project for the FogScreen by Helen Papagiannis, a PhD student in communication & culture. Digitized film clips by cinematic special effects pioneer Georges Méliès are tied to a series of rfid objects that the viewer can scan to access the video.

Papagiannis made major waves in AR circles last fall with her presentation at the International Symposium for Mixed and Augmented Reality in Florida. A leading AR news blog, , dubbed her “the new ARtist in charge,” awarded her its Most Beautiful Demo award and put her on its top 10 list of forces currently shaping the industry.

CommCult master's student Justin Stephenson showcases a new "procedural animation" (a form of computer animation generated in real-time) using Quartz Composer.

Master of Fine Arts film student Simone Rapisarda presents the ladybike test project: the first film to come out of the lab using the Ladybug camera. This spherical digital video unit comprises multiple cameras and records more than 80 per cent of the full sphere. Rapisarda’s video, filmed with the camera set in a bicycle basket, shows the scenery approaching, speeding by and receding simultaneously.

Above: An image from Simone Rapisarda's ladybike test project

Also experimenting with the Ladybug camera is graduate film student Cameron Woykin, who has created a time-based video installation using footage of himself shot inside the lab. Edited into a spherical image, the video shows multiple views of the researcher as he moves around the space.

Right: The Ladybug camera in action

Wormholes is another experiment in spherical storytelling, created by Fisher and Andrew Roth, the lab’s technology manager. Using the lab’s Intersense IS900 Inertial/Sonic Tracking "virtual reality" grid, participants wearing a virtual reality headset can literally get inside and explore simultaneous realities through spherical video clips shot by Fisher and Roth on various locations on campus.

Several projects use SnapdragonAR software, an innovative "drag and drop" AR interface developed in the lab in collaboration with computer vision researchers Andrei Rotenstein and Mikhail Sizintsev, PhD candidates in computer science, and Dr. Mark Fiala. Snapdragon allows people without computer programming skills to easily build AR experiences. This software is now available for sale through Future Stories, a spin-off company 91��ɫ’s AR Lab established to provide participants with the option of commercializing their lab developments.

The Snapdragon projects created in the lab by graduate students include Papagiannis' sound toy wonder turner; Boaz Berri’s Neighbours, which fills an image of an apartment complex with videos of life inside the building; Carter Bruce, Anne Koizumi and Claudia Sicondolfo’s The Underground Cave, which animates a model of an underground space; and a work-in-progress by Evelyn Tchakarov. Fisher will also be showing an AR tabletop theatre piece called Circle which was presented for the first time last December as part of the Digital Arts & Culture conference at the . Wallace Edwards, a Governor General's Literary Award-winning children’s book illustrator, will show some recent experiments with AR illustrations that come to life in your hands.

Above: A collection of images from the Snapdragon projects created in the lab by graduate students

Another computer program developed in-house is an iPhone GPS video-caching application created by Roth and Rotenstein. Akin to a technological Easter egg hunt, when the application is running, the iPhone will display a digital surprise – in this case a film clip – when it is physically located at a predetermined GPS coordinate. CommCult master's student Magda Olszanowski's Suivez Moi was built using the GPS software. An outdoor demo of her project is available now by appointment (call 416-736-2100 ext. 21077), but the lab hopes these locative film experiences will be available for download through the Apple app store in the near future.

Republished courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

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