For a decade, Gulseren, who teaches human resource management in 91亚色's School of Administrative Studies, has researched chronic pain in the workplace. During that time, one issue kept surfacing.

鈥淪ubstance dependence is far more common among employees than most people realize,鈥� says Gulseren. 鈥淥pioids kept coming up as an important and often overlooked part of that picture.鈥�

The impacts of opioid dependence can be significant for both workers and organizations, she says. For personnel, it can contribute to anxiety, reduced concentration and chronic health challenges. For employers, it can mean increased absenteeism and presenteeism, reduced productivity, higher turnover and rising disability and health care costs.

Despite the effect dependence can have on workers and companies, Gulseren and frequent collaborator Zhanna Lyubykh, an assistant professor at Simon Fraser University, have found many employers remain unprepared to respond.

鈥淢any organizations still lack effective and practical strategies for addressing opioid-related challenges at work,鈥� says Gulseren. 鈥淭hey often don鈥檛 know how to approach it.鈥�

That gap led to a paper, , which aims to provide organizations with a clearer understanding of what contributes to opioid use in the workplace and what employers can do to address it.

In order to do so, the researchers reviewed a broad body of literature on opioid use disorder, workplace injuries, job stress, culture, drug-testing policies and recovery programs. They also examined evidence on accommodations and other measures designed to help employees manage substance-use challenges and return to work successfully.

Across the literature they reviewed, several themes emerged. According to Gulseren, one of the most notable findings was that employment setting conditions themselves can contribute to opioid dependence.

A common assumption is that opioid use disorder is primarily a personal issue rooted in an individual's own circumstances.

鈥淥ur research points to something different: conditions like poor ergonomics, high stress, pressure to return to work too soon after an injury or heavy physical demands with little control over one's work can push employees toward dependence,鈥� says Gulseren.

Across the literature, another theme emerged: workplace responses can be just as important as workplace conditions. When organizations addressed opioid use through measures such as drug testing or strict disciplinary policies, the evidence suggested those approaches often fell short.

Punitive measures such as drug testing and strict disciplinary approaches were often found to have limited success. Some studies reviewed by Gulseren even identified links between punitive policies and higher rates of opioid use. She and Lyubykh found such approaches can increase employee distress, create perceptions of unfairness, discourage people from seeking help and encourage workers to conceal substance-use problems.

Instead, the researchers found strategies focused on reducing stigma, providing accommodations and helping staff through treatment and recovery were often associated with better outcomes.

Across the studies they reviewed, these approaches were linked to lower rates of substance use, safer workplaces, greater willingness among employees to seek help, improved retention and more successful recovery and return-to-work outcomes.

For Gulseren, the review was about more than identifying insights from existing research. It was also an opportunity to explore practical ways organizations could better assist personnel.

鈥淚t was important to us that the work translate into applicable, practical recommendations that people in HR and management roles could actually put into practice,鈥� says Gulseren.

The published paper offers recommendations split into two categories: prevention and response.

On the prevention side, it encourages employers to focus on reducing workplace injuries, improving ergonomics, lowering job-related stress, creating psychologically safer spaces and ensuring employees have adequate opportunities for rest and recovery.

For those already struggling with opioid dependence, they recommend non-judgmental conversations, reducing stigma, recognizing signs of distress, providing appropriate accommodations and facilitating treatment and recovery. The researchers also emphasize the importance of structured return-to-work plans and ongoing support after treatment.

The recommendations, Gulseren says, are intended to give organizations the tools and understanding they need to better respond to staff needs while improving outcomes for companies as a whole.

鈥淲e hope it gives managers concrete, evidence-based tools both preventive (how to minimize the likelihood of opioid-related harm in the first place) and reactive (how to support employees through opioid use disorder and recovery when it does occur) ways,鈥� says Gulseren.

For her, that work is especially important because conversations about opioid use in the workplace are often oversimplified.

鈥淥pioids can be a necessary part of chronic pain management for many employees, so this isn't a simple 鈥榦pioids are bad鈥� story,鈥� says Gulseren. 鈥淥rganizations need better ways to manage and respond to this reality. We hope our work encourages organizations to move away from punitive responses and toward more supportive approaches.鈥�

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The , published in Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies, shows that municipalities may not need new infrastructure to become 鈥渟marter鈥� and explores how to use the city itself as the sensor.

Urban planners depend on data to support decisions ranging from parking management and road maintenance to traffic operations and environmental monitoring, explains Elham Heydari-Gharaei, the study鈥檚 first author and 91亚色 PhD alum. Collecting that information across an entire city, however, can require expensive networks of fixed sensors.

鈥淚t struck me that while municipalities spend millions installing and maintaining fixed sensors, thousands of vehicles are already travelling through urban streets every day,鈥� says Heydari-Gharaei, who is now an assistant professor at Toronto Metropolitan University. 鈥淭hat made me wonder: What if the city itself could become the sensor?鈥�

By strategically coordinating vehicles equipped as mobile sensors, bicycles, maintenance vehicles, municipal fleets and shared mobility services could gather and share information as they move through urban areas.

鈥淭he key challenge is coordinating those vehicles efficiently, so the data remains reliable while keeping costs manageable,鈥� says Heydari-Gharaei. 鈥淏y solving that coordination problem, cities can collect reliable, up-to-date information while making better use of existing resources.鈥�

In response, the research team developed algorithms to help planners evaluate operational scenarios. They assessed factors such as sensing frequency, fleet size and service routes, while scaling solutions for large urban networks.

One finding that stood out emerged from a Toronto case study. Researchers found that only about one-quarter of Toronto鈥檚 Bike Share fleet could monitor the entire permit parking network if equipped with sensors and strategically routed. The result highlights how optimization can significantly reduce the resources needed for city-wide monitoring.

Mehdi Nourinejad, associate professor at the and Heydari-Gharaei's doctoral supervisor, says the implications for mobile sensing systems could enhance data retrieval for infrastructure inspection, environmental monitoring, traffic management and other smart-city applications.

鈥淐ities already have thousands of vehicles moving through their streets every day and the key is to develop optimization methods that determine how those vehicles should be routed and deployed to collect reliable data,鈥� says Nourinejad. 鈥淚f cities can collect reliable information using resources they already operate, they may be able to improve services without major new expenditures.鈥�

The findings could also help address financial barriers experienced by municipalities seeking to expand data collection without making large investments in smart-city infrastructure.

Reliable urban data, says Heydari-Gharaei, supports everyday decisions, from helping drivers find parking to monitoring road conditions, air quality and public infrastructure. Better data, says Heydari-Gharaei, can support better planning, reduced congestion, improved sustainability and more responsive public services.

鈥淎s sensing technologies continue to improve, there is enormous potential to rethink how cities gather information without continuously investing in new infrastructure,鈥� says Heydari-Gharaei.

During the project, 91亚色 researchers collaborated with Professor Matthew Roorda from the University of Toronto, who contributed expertise in freight transportation and urban mobility.

With files from Alex Huls

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Razieh (Neda) Salahandish, an assistant professor at the , is developing a wearable biosensor that uses sweat to track physiological changes in real time. The tool aims to redefine preventative health care, supporting earlier detection of health conditions.

To do this, the device uses technology that combines microfluidic systems with AI to analyze biomarkers found in sweat 鈥� a body fluid Salahandish says contains valuable information about human health. A small patch collects sweat from the skin, analyzes it for disease biomarkers, and sends results to health care practitioners anytime a patient scans the device with a specific app. 

"We believe sweat has the potential to become an important source of health data," says Salahandish. "Because it contains valuable biological information, our goal is to use that data to provide health insights in a way that is continuous, accessible and non-invasive." 

Unlike traditional diagnostic methods that often require blood samples or laboratory testing, wearable sweat-sensing technology offers a non-invasive approach to monitoring physiological changes as they occur. 

To advance the technology, Salahandish worked with 91亚色's YSpace and the IP Innovation Clinic to launch WearDOXX, a health technology company focused on developing biotechnology and AI-enabled health care devices. Through WearDOXX, Salahandish and her collaborators are working to translate years of research into commercially viable health technologies.聽

The project has attracted support from investors, industry partners and funding agencies as researchers work to bring the technology from the lab to everyday use. In 2025, the initiative received a $300,000 Ontario Centre of Innovation Collaborate 2 Commercialize grant and a $345,000 Mitacs Business Strategy Internship grant. 

The recent $5-million infusion from investors allows the work to move toward clinical validation and support continued technology development, testing and commercialization efforts. 

"The support we've received reflects growing interest in technologies that make health monitoring more accessible and proactive," says Salahandish. "Our focus now is to continue to build the evidence and infrastructure needed to for broader adoption." 

Over the next two years, Salahandish and her team will refine and test the technology, with plans to bring it to market soon after. While no launch date has been set, she is enthusiastic about its potential impact. 

鈥淭his is about giving people control over their health in ways we haven鈥檛 seen before,鈥� she says. 

Salahandish is also earning recognition for her work. She was recently named one of five finalists for the Ontario Centre of Innovation's 2026 Baylis Ontario Life Sciences Innovator Award, with the recipient to be announced in September. She is also the recipient the 2026 Young Woman Researcher in Biomedical Devices award from the Venus International Women Awards. 

With files from Deirdre Kelly

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This summer, YFile examines how 91亚色-led researchers move ideas into impact through the Connected Minds Prototyping Awards. This series shows innovation in practice 鈥� how socially responsible technologies are tested in real-world settings and how this work drives meaningful change.

In an era where health information is only a few clicks away, finding answers that are accurate, trustworthy and easy to understand can still be a challenge.

Scientific databases contain vast amounts of knowledge about human health and disease, but much of it is written for researchers and clinicians using specialized language and technical terminology. For other individuals trying to understand a diagnosis, assess a health risk or learn about a specific condition, navigating this complex landscape can be overwhelming.

91亚色 is collaborating with researchers at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) to break down these barriers through an AI-powered chatbot that provides accessible, easy-to-understand health information.

The chatbot serves as a conversational interface for Reactome, one of the world's largest curated databases of biological pathways and processes that drive human health and disease. While widely used by biomedical researchers, Reactome's technical language can make its information difficult for non-experts to understand.

Amin Mawani, director of the Master of Health Industry Administration (MHIA) program at 91亚色鈥檚 , contributes patient and user perspectives to the project, which also brings together Lincoln Stein, scientific director (interim) and head of Adaptive Oncology at OICR; Helia Mohammadi, a graduate student at the University of Toronto; and Adam Wright, a scientific software engineer at OICR.

Drawing on the power of AI, the chatbot allows users to search Reactome in natural language and receive answers in a clear, user-friendly format tailored to their level of understanding. Whether someone wants to know what causes diabetes, learn more about a genetic predisposition to cancer or explore why they feel tired after eating carbohydrates, the tool is designed to translate complex scientific concepts into plain language.

Mawani says the broader goal is to make trusted scientific knowledge more accessible and strengthen connections between researchers and the public. 鈥淭his tool helps to close the gaps in understanding between the research community and the citizens whose tax dollars support them,鈥� he says.

The project received support through the Connected Minds Prototyping Award, a program that helps researchers translate promising ideas into practical tools. The funding supported a graduate student and a scientific software developer who moved the project from concept through prototype development and into production. The project's emphasis on accessibility and inclusivity reflects the mission of Connected Minds 鈥� a multi-million-dollar transdisciplianry research initiative led by 91亚色 and Queen's universities to develop socially responsible technologies that benefit diverse communities.

Today, the chatbot is fully operational and serves approximately 500 unique users each month. Users can ask for information on a range of topics, from everyday health concerns to more complex scientific concepts.

As more people turn to online tools for health information, the team notes the source of the chatbot's answers is central to its value.

One of the project's key goals is to combat health misinformation by drawing its responses from curated databases rather than unverified online sources. By providing scientifically grounded answers, the platform helps users make more informed decisions about their health.

The team also sees the chatbot as a tool for improving health equity. By offering information in multiple languages, it is able to serve users from diverse backgrounds, regardless of health knowledge or familiarity with English.

"Our goal is to bring structured and accurate scientific medical information to people from all backgrounds and communities in a way that removes barriers created by technical language and accessibility challenges," says Mawani.

According to Mawani, better access to reliable health information can have impacts that extend beyond individual users. More informed patients may be better equipped to recognize misleading or false claims, seek timely medical care and take preventive steps before conditions become more serious.

In addition to helping members of the public better understand their own health, the technology has potential applications for researchers. Future enhancements will allow users to analyze large biological datasets and interpret results through simple natural-language prompts.

As the project gains momentum, the team plans to expand awareness of the tool through publications, conferences, workshops and tutorials, while integrating the chatbot more deeply within the Reactome platform.

By making trusted biomedical knowledge easier to access while supporting future scientific discovery, Mawani and his colleagues hope the platform will improve health outcomes for communities and offer researchers a more streamlined way to access knowledge.

The post 91亚色 U expert helps develop AI chatbot to explain health science appeared first on YFile.

鈥淲hen we think of environmental sustainability, we often immediately think about newer energy-efficient technologies. Organic waste treatment becomes rather an afterthought,鈥� says Reema Kumar, a PhD candidate at 91亚色's and lead author of the study.

That perspective is beginning to change as researchers look for new ways to recover value from organic waste. Instead of sending food waste to landfill 鈥� where it can contribute to greenhouse gases and other forms of pollution 鈥� scientists are exploring how it can be converted into useful resources.

One promising approach uses microorganisms to break down discarded food and produce chemicals that are typically made from petroleum-based sources, creating an alternative to landfill disposal and fossil-based production.

While researchers have tested adding microorganisms to increase the production of useful compounds from discarded food, most of that research has focused on systems that operate at relatively warm temperatures. Much less is known about whether the same process can selectively produce compounds under colder, lower-energy conditions.

According to Kumar, maintaining warmer operating conditions can require significant energy input, particularly in colder climates. Seeking a more energy-efficient approach, Kumar and her colleagues turned their attention to lower-temperature systems.

鈥淲e were inspired to optimize this natural system of microorganisms using food waste to produce volatile fatty acids under lower temperature conditions to make it more energy efficient as well as provide a targeted approach for production,鈥� says Kumar.

They honed in on Clostridium butyricum, a bacterium known for generating butyric acid and a commercially valuable chemical commonly used in food, pharmaceutical and industrial products. Yielding such chemicals from organic waste could provide a more sustainable alternative to conventional manufacturing methods that rely on fossil-fuel-derived raw materials.

Their work questioned whether introducing the bacterium into a low-temperature food-waste fermentation system could increase production of butyric acid.

In a study published in , Kumar and her collaborators tested the idea using food waste and wastewater sludge. The research was co-supervised by Lassonde Professor Satinder Kaur Brar, along with Guneet Kaur, associate professor at the University of Guelph.

The team created a series of small-scale experiments using food waste collected from restaurants in 91亚色 Lanes and sludge sourced from the Humber Wastewater Treatment Facility. Together, the food waste and sludge created conditions that allowed naturally occurring microorganisms to break down the waste.

Clostridium butyricum was then introduced into some of the samples to see if the bacterium could steer the process toward producing more butyric acid.

鈥淲e wanted to show that you can 鈥榞uide鈥� a complex microbial community, made up of many different bacteria naturally found in wastewater sludge, toward a specific, useful outcome just by introducing one well-chosen microorganism,鈥� says Kumar. 鈥淚t's a bit like steering a crowd by adding a few people who know where they're going.鈥�

The approach worked even better than the researchers expected. The system that received the bacterium produced more than twice as many acids overall and more than five times as much butyric acid compared to the control.

鈥淲e didn't expect such a strong response at a temperature of 17 C," says Kumar. "That was a genuinely exciting result."

The findings, she adds, point to a future where discarded food can be viewed as a resource rather than waste.

Increasing the production of commercially valuable compouds at lower temperatures could pave the way for more energy-efficient waste-treatment systems that recover greater value from discarded food. Over time, it may help keep organic waste out of landfills while creating renewable alternatives to some petroleum-derived chemicals.

鈥淲e hope it helps move the needle toward low-cost, low-energy ways of recovering value from food waste, especially in colder countries,鈥� says Kumar. 鈥淥nce this approach can eventually be scaled up, it could support local biorefinery systems that turn organic waste into useful chemicals without requiring expensive heating infrastructure. That has real implications for both sustainability and economics.鈥�

The post Turning food waste into sustainable chemicals: 91亚色 study investigates appeared first on YFile.

For nearly five days, the heavy blanket of smoke trapped toxic particles over Toronto, drastically increasing health risks while the wildfires caused catastrophic damage in communities across northwestern Ontario. 

The unprecedented devastation has 91亚色 experts debating whether Canada should explore a new national agency to manage wildfire response 鈥� or revamp the system in place. 

The recent fires in northwestern Ontario are now accelerating conversations about how Canada manages wildfires, which have gained momentum since fires tore through Jasper, Alta. two years ago consuming about a third of the town鈥檚 buildings.  

Since then recovery has remained painfully slow, highlighting the longterm impacts of the shorterm devastation of wildfires. As of March 2026, only 4 per cent of the 374 properties lost to fire have been fully rebuilt. Meanwhile, insured losses have swelled from early projections of $900 million to an estimated $1.3 billion, according to the Insurance Bureau of Canada.

Those numbers have made Jasper a test case for a broader question facing Ottawa: should the federal government overhaul how it manages wildfires 鈥� perhaps by creating a national agency 鈥� or focus on fixing the system it already has? 

Across Canada, opinions diverge sharply on what that change should look like. The debate runs straight through 91亚色鈥檚 Disaster and Emergency Management program at the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, where two professors studying wildfires stake opposing positions. 

After a major fire, 鈥渋t is all left to individual communities impacted to manage it themselves,鈥� and a federally mandated framework would be beneficial, says Ali Asgary, 91亚色 professor and director of the Advanced Disaster, Emergency and Rapid Response Simulation (ADERSIM) Lab, which uses large-scale simulations to model disasters and test emergency responses. 

His colleague, Professor Eric B. Kennedy, studies the human dimensions of fire and how people and institutions use evidence to make decisions in wildfire and other emergencies. Like Asgary, Kennedy shares 鈥渢his sense that we need transformative thinking,鈥� but argues that Canada should focus on transforming the systems and programs it already has, rather than building a new national agency from scratch. 

Both agree recent seasons have revealed how fragile Canada鈥檚 wildfire system becomes under extreme pressure 鈥� and that Jasper stands as one of the starkest examples. 

A system under pressure

When the Jasper wildfires erupted in July 2024, scarce resources and confusion over jurisdiction hampered early firefighting efforts, despite what officials described as a well-oiled crisis response. 

Ken McMullen, chief of emergency services for Red Deer Emergency Services and president of the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs (CAFC), served as an incident commander on the scene. One fire burned to the northeast of Jasper, while three fires to the south merged into a singular inferno racing toward town. 

Inside the blaze, the heat and winds acted like a convection oven, generating gusts as powerful as an EF-5 tornado with wind speeds exceeding 300 km/hr, uprooting trees and hurling flames up to 50 metres into the ir. When mountainside trees gave way, embers rained down on the town, setting homes and businesses ablaze. 

McMullen and his team coordinated the wildland, municipal and volunteer firefighting teams in evacuating 20,000 people, and deploying high-volume sprinkler systems, a rotating air fleet for water drops and hotspot detection, and continuous fuel removal to steer the flames鈥� path. 

Still, when air tankers were needed that first night, none of Canada鈥檚 106-plane fleet was available 鈥� already committed to fires burning in other provinces. By the next day, the blaze had grown too large for water drops to make a difference. By the third, the wind and smoke made flying unsafe. 

It would take 47 days before the fires were declared under control. By the end of the 2024 fire season, two Canadian firefighters had died, including one in Jasper. 

Now, with wildfires raging across northwestern Ontario, McMullen, Kennedy and Asgary all agree that Canada is not ready, and they鈥檙e urging swift, systemic change at the federal level. 

鈥淎t the height of a wildfire season, everybody鈥檚 interested. Politicians are interested. Industry is interested to learn, what do we do differently?鈥� McMullen says. But once major fires are extinguished, they鈥檙e on the back burner until spring. 

鈥淲e forget in January what we talked about in July,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e have to make it a 365-day conversation.鈥�

A changing risk landscape

For Kennedy and Asgary, that conversation requires starting with fire itself and how it has evolved. 

Climate change has generated hotter temperatures and drier landscapes, altering fire behaviour and lengthening wildfire seasons around the world. Kennedy leads YEMERGE, a pan-University research network that studies how people, communities and institutions prepare for and respond to crises such as wildfires. His lab examines how local governments adopt mitigation programs such as FireSmart Canada, and how bureaucratic processes and staff turnover in government can hamper fire mitigation efforts. 

鈥淭he big challenge is the magnitude of what we鈥檙e facing,鈥� Kennedy says. 鈥淲e have huge forested areas. We have a lot of the [urban] interface at risk of exposure, we have a lot of historic building stock that is not necessarily fire adapted, and we鈥檝e got challenges 鈥� like how to make housing more affordable that can, at times, be at odds with doing well on fire.鈥� 

The 2023, 2024 and 2025 seasons were among the top five worst in Canada鈥檚 wildfire history. With 16.5 million hectares of land burned from coast to coast, 2023 was the most destructive on record, followed by 2025 at 8.9 million hectares. 

鈥淲hen you have three consecutive years, you can鈥檛 say 鈥榰nprecedented鈥� anymore,鈥� McMullen says. 鈥淵ou can鈥檛 say it was 鈥榰npredictable.鈥� So if [fires] are predictable, that means that they are preventable.鈥� 

91亚色鈥檚 Disaster and Emergency Management program is instrumental in making those predictions. Asgary鈥檚 team at ADERSIM forecasts the behaviour of existing wildfires with AI modelling, develops drone-based wildfire sensing tools for water quality assessments, and uses virtual reality to help residents make changes related to wildfire. 

鈥淲e can provide a lot of research and training capacities, especially when it comes to the use of new technologies in this area,鈥� Asgary says. 

However, resources have been stretched to capacity across the country, burdened further by a complicated chain of command. In Canada, emergency management for any hazard is usually executed first at the municipal level. As a disaster grows, communities call on their provincial or territorial ministries for more support. 

Fire management in Canada also involves all 13 provincial and territorial wildland fire agencies. Those agencies own and operate the non-profit Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre (CIFFC), a collaborative body that coordinates resource sharing and mutual aid but does not function as a federal agency itself. 

Federal emergency management currently falls under the purview of Public Safety Canada and its Government Operations Centre (GOC), which focuses on preparedness and response. In the case of Jasper, the GOC provided humanitarian and logistical support for residents, and coordinated the deployment of Canadian Armed Forces heavy-lift aircraft with the team on the ground. 

There are gaps between existing agencies: CIFFC mobilizes personnel but does not hire or train firefighters, and the GOC鈥檚 activities stop short of the other two tenets of emergency management: prevention and mitigation, and recovery. 

Jurisdictional responsibility for wildfires is further complicated by fragmentation at each level of government. If a wildfire occurs on federal lands managed by the Department of National Defence or Parks Canada, those agencies coordinate the firefighting efforts, not the province.

That was the situation with the Jasper wildfires. A 2025 report commissioned by the Municipality of Jasper cited the provincial government鈥檚 interference as a slowdown to response operations. The report found the province of Alberta repeatedly requested information from the command team and attempted to make decisions, even though it had no jurisdictional authority because the town is located within a national park. 

A year prior, the National Risk Profile (NPR), a national disaster risk assessment published by Public Safety Canada, had warned that jurisdictions are not aligned in their emergency management approaches and programming. The NPR identified further challenges, including information-sharing bottlenecks between the health and emergency management systems. 

Asgary says the current system isn鈥檛 working like it used to. Even well-resourced provinces such as Ontario or B.C. have been overwhelmed in recent years, leaving little capacity to support neighbours. Without a top-down framework, Asgary says, municipalities hire consultants and end up with equipment and software incompatible with other stakeholders 鈥� a problem that only surfaces when operations scale up during a disaster. 

鈥淭he time has passed to do reactive policy making,鈥� Asgary says. 鈥淲e are now in the middle of a major climate change-related crisis. It should be clear for everyone that the current system is not sufficient.鈥� 

The resource challenge

As a disaster unfolds, resources are often assigned based on availability rather than what is best suited for the job, Asgary says. 

鈥淭he wildfire is not going to tell us, 鈥業鈥檓 going to happen now,鈥欌�� he says. 鈥淭hese resources may be already deployed somewhere else.鈥� 

A national reserve firefighting force is an oft-cited solution, but unlikely without a systemic change in recruitment, says McMullen, who represents fire chiefs across Canada in his role as president of the CAFC. Of Canada鈥檚 126,000 firefighters, about 90,000 are volunteers 鈥� a pool that has shrunk by nearly 29 per cent since 2016. McMullen correlates the drop with recent wildfire seasons that have strained volunteers, who are normally called upon an average of 22 minutes a week to provide support in their local communities. 

If provinces were to increase investment in attracting and recruiting new firefighters or equipment to the pipeline, Kennedy says there would be 鈥渆nough slack in the system to keep trading and sharing and providing mutual aid.鈥� 

The provinces and territories currently own and share an aging fleet of water bombers. The federal government hasn鈥檛 committed to investing in a national fleet, but did announce $316.7 million over the next five years to contract additional aircraft from third parties for the 2026 season and beyond. Provinces, meanwhile, are moving ahead on their own: Alberta announced in February that it would invest $400 million to purchase five De Havilland Canadair 515 firefighting aircraft, with the first delivered in 2031. Manitoba is also in line to acquire three of the new water bombers, with the first to arrive by 2031.

Two paths forward: the debate

Calls for a national wildfire agency surface every year during the height of wildfire season as another potential solution to the resource problem. 

Kennedy says a wildfire agency is a 鈥済reat buzzword,鈥� but notes CIFFC is already working effectively at pooling resources between provinces and navigating equipment procurement with the federal government. 

鈥淭hese 15 fire agencies have been working for decades to build trust with communities, to build relationships, to develop infrastructure and get their systems working well. Why would we want to create a 16th fire bureaucracy?鈥� Kennedy says. 鈥淭his call [acts as] a code word for, 鈥榃e need more co-ordination,鈥� or, 鈥榳e need more collaboration.鈥欌�� 

He says Canada鈥檚 approach would be better served with continuous injections of funding to existing systems. He sees the Government Operations Centre as a potential springboard for building a solid operational framework for all emergencies, including wildfires. 

Asgary envisions an emergency management agency that also covers floods and earthquakes. He says the current system 鈥渋s not really able to help to the level that these provinces expect, because they don鈥檛 have [the resources]鈥� during the time of the actual emergency. 

He points to the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency as an example of an agency with a wide mandate to do anything required to manage a disaster and its aftermath, including waiving bureaucratic processes and pulling resources from governmental departments. 

McMullen and the CAFC have been lobbying for more of a hybrid role in the form of a national fire commissioner or liaison, who would act as point person for all federal fire-related conversations. 

The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) echoes Asgary鈥檚 call for a central emergency management agency so communities can avoid creating a new 鈥減laybook鈥� after every disaster. The IBC, which oversaw $2.4 billion in insured loss claims related to weather in 2025, has called on the federal government to discuss their response to emergency management. Talks are underway: Minister of Emergency Management and Community Resilience Eleanor Olszewski led public and industry consultations through March 2026, with a report forthcoming. 

Canada remains the only G7 country without a national emergency management agency or a national fire administration. 鈥� 

A future with fire

Central to whatever comes next is mitigation 鈥� the actions taken before a fire. 

鈥淲e have to accept that we will live with fire,鈥� Kennedy says. 鈥淗ow do we make the landscape less attractive for that fire to spread?鈥� 

One way is to focus on improvements to the wildland itself. Containing every fire means the forest becomes overburdened with healthy trees that act as fuel. Controlled burns can encourage regeneration of the landscape, and clearing long strips of land to form built-in firebreaks can slow the spread of wildfire. 

Another approach is to work within communities on updating building codes so new structures use fire-resistant materials 鈥� which the town of Jasper is doing 鈥� and on educating residents about wildfire-proofing measures they can make to their homes. 

Disaster response already costs the federal government about $1.8 billion a year. However, the National Risk Profile estimates a return on investment of $4 to $10 for every dollar spent on mitigation, with the highest returns related to risk assessment, hazard analysis and mitigation planning. 

Canada is nowhere near international investment benchmarks established by the European Union that suggests governments spend between 0.66 and 1.25 per cent of their GDP annually on climate adaptation, which includes fire mitigation activities. For Canada, that would fall between $21.5 and $40.7 billion. In 2026, the federal climate adaptation spend is $7.1 billion. 

Investments start and stall with shifts in government, which further complicate consistent action, and are often targeted at firefighting instead of systemic change, Kennedy says. 鈥� 

鈥淭here is simply no number of firefighters that would be enough in Canada. We will never have enough air tankers. We will never have enough hoses. We will never have enough firefighters. That is a black hole of investment,鈥� says Kennedy. 鈥淲e could pour as much money into firefighting as we want, and it will never be enough, because the root causes of this are not fire suppression alone, but are ecosystem management, addressing climate change and building more resiliently.鈥�

Contributed by Kristina Urquhart

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Clark, associate director, program development and academic integrity in 91亚色鈥檚 Office of the Vice-President Academic, will lead 鈥檚 work to support evidence-informed practices across Canada鈥檚 post-secondary sector.

As Chair, Clark will work with colleagues across the country to support institutions, academic integrity practitioners and educators responding to emerging challenges in teaching, learning and assessment.

鈥淧ost-secondary institutions are navigating significant changes in assessment, student learning and academic misconduct, alongside the growing influence of generative AI and other emerging technologies,鈥� says Clark. 鈥淭his environment highlights the need for coordinated approaches that support student success while maintaining public trust in the value and integrity of academic credentials.鈥�

Her appointment reflects her extensive experience leading academic integrity education and prevention initiatives at 91亚色, including collaborating with campus partners, co-facilitating 91亚色 Libraries鈥� Academic Integrity Workshop for Students (offered several times during the year), and delivering workshops and presentations to 91亚色 community members.

As Chair of the University鈥檚 Academic Integrity Community of Practice, Clark works with faculty members, academic units and institutional partners to develop resources, programs and strategies that foster integrity in teaching, learning and research. Her work includes advancing educational approaches that respond to evolving student needs and emerging issues, including the responsible use of new technologies.

"Academic integrity is fundamental to academic quality," says Clark. 鈥淚CAI Canada provides an important space for collaboration, professional learning and the sharing of effective practices."

Clark recently completed a PhD in higher education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE) at the University of Toronto. Her research examined the roles and experiences of academic integrity practitioners working within post-secondary institutions and contributed to scholarship on how institutions build and sustain cultures of integrity through policy, practice and collaboration.

"I'm looking forward to supporting ICAI Canada's continued growth,鈥� she says, 鈥渁s well as the work to strengthen connections among academic integrity practitioners across Canada.鈥�

Those interested in becoming a member of the Academic Integrity Community of Practice at 91亚色 can reach out to Clark at angclark@yorku.ca.

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This summer, YFile examines how 91亚色-led researchers move ideas into impact through the Connected Minds Prototyping Awards. This series shows innovation in practice 鈥� how socially responsible technologies are tested in real-world settings and how this work drives meaningful change.

From buttoning a shirt to turning a doorknob, people rely on their hands to perform countless tasks every day. Yet, despite the importance of the human hand, studying how people learn and perform these movements is challenging for researchers.

Traditional methods of tracking hand movements are often expensive, time-consuming and require participants to wear uncomfortable sensors or reflective markers. These techniques often interfere with the natural hand movements researchers attempt to study, rendering the results as ineffective.

At 91亚色, researchers are addressing this challenge through the development of ATHENA (Automatically Tracking Hands Expertly with No Annotations), an AI-powered motion-tracking system that captures natural hand movements without requiring markers, sensors or wearable devices.

The project is led by Jonathan Michaels, assistant professor at the School of Kinesiology and Health Science, alongside Daanish (Dan) Mulla, a postdoctoral fellow and lead researcher on the project.

"We wanted a way to measure natural hand movement as it actually happens, without attaching anything to the person," says Michaels.

Using synchronized video from multiple low-cost cameras and machine-learning algorithms, ATHENA captures footage of a person to map their hand, body and face movements in three dimensions. This open-source software removes the barriers associated with traditional motion capture systems by eliminating costs and tedious setup requirements while upholding accurate measurements.

In validation studies, ATHENA was tested against traditional marker-based technology commonly considered the gold standard in movement science. The results showed strong accuracy across a range of tasks, from simple reaching and grasping to handling objects such as mugs, books, pens and tools.

Ultimately, the team hopes ATHENA will become a tool for those seeking to better understand how people move, learn new skills and recover from injury.

Now fully functional and freely available to researchers, ATHENA鈥檚 success moving from concept to real-world application was driven in part by the Connected Minds Prototyping Award.

The award is designed to support prototype developments aligned with the mandate of Connected Minds, a multi-million-dollar transdisciplinary research initiative led by 91亚色 and Queen鈥檚 universities that explores the bridge between emerging technology, public health and social justice.

Funding for ATHENA enabled the team to develop portable versions of the system that can be transported and deployed outside the laboratory. These mobile setups have already been used in autism clinics in Israel and the GTA, expanding the tool鈥檚 reach beyond traditional research environments.

"The award was instrumental in moving ATHENA from a validated proof-of-concept into a tool that can actually be used out in the world," says Michaels.

Recipients of the award also receive support from other sources and partners. For ATHENA鈥檚 team, it fostered a collaboration with 91亚色's IP Innovation Clinic for guidance on developing a strategy to maximize adoption while keeping it freely available.

By remaining open source, affordable and developed in collaboration with the communities and clinics that use it, Michaels says ATHENA reflects Connected Minds' goal of creating accessible, socially responsible technology.

Through the prototyping process, the team learned that developing a useful technology requires more than proving it works.

"The hardest part of building a useful tool is often not the core idea, but making it robust, easy and trustworthy enough that other people will actually adopt it," says Michaels.

Navigating the challenges of moving from controlled laboratory environments to clinics and community settings, where lighting conditions vary, people move more freely and privacy considerations become essential, he says.

Because the tool operates entirely without bulky tracking equipment, it can capture movement in more natural settings and offer a more comfortable experience for participants. The comfort and ability to track naturalistic movements translates well with respect to ATHENA's most promising application in health care and clinical research.

An example of this is a collaboration with the Freud Lab at 91亚色 where researchers are using ATHENA to study how children move during activities such as building with LEGO. The goal is to identify patterns that could support earlier and more objective identification of autism and other neurodevelopmental conditions.

Michaels says plans are underway to expand ATHENA's capabilities, such as integrating eye tracking, object tracking and multi-person tracking. And, by working with additional clinical and educational partners, the team hopes to broaden adoption while maintaining the platform's open-source model.

"Our goal is for ATHENA to become a broadly used, trusted and freely available resource that helps the research and clinical community better understand human dexterity and improve lives," says Michaels.

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When聽Dorin was a doctoral student in the Faculty of Environmental & Urban Change and began discussing potential PhD research projects with Colla, her supervisor and one of Canada's leading pollinator conservation scientists, she already knew the questions she wanted to pursue.

With a background in wildlife biology, Dorin had followed growing concern about bee declines and understood the significance of the issue given the critical role pollinators play in maintaining healthy ecosystems and supporting food production.

鈥淟ike many others, I was deeply concerned about the declines we were seeing,鈥� Dorin says. She considered such question as: 鈥淲hat does effective pollinator conservation look like? How can we engage landowners in taking action to protect pollinators?鈥�

For many doctoral students, refining broad interests into a focused dissertation project can be one of the most challenging parts of the process. Dorin says Colla鈥檚 guidance was instrumental in helping her navigate that challenge.

鈥淪he had an incredible ability to ask the right questions and encourage me to think more deeply about the science,鈥� says Dorin.

With Colla's mentorship, those questions eventually led Dorin to explore what she saw as an overlooked area.

She explains that while a lot of research focuses on crops that depend on animal pollination, such as apples and blueberries, crops that do not require pollinators cover larger areas of agricultural land.

鈥淚f we assume those landscapes don't matter because the crops themselves don't need bees, we're overlooking millions of acres that pollinators may still use,鈥� she says. 鈥淚 wanted to understand what role these pollinator-independent crops play in supporting wild bee populations across agricultural landscapes.鈥�

That realization led Dorin and Colla to take a closer look at vineyards. Although grapes do not require animal pollination, vineyards represent large agricultural infrastructure and could provide important habitat for wild bees.

To explore that possibility, Dorin and Colla studied wild bee communities in 26 commercial vineyards in Niagara Region over two growing seasons. In addition to sampling bees, they examined factors including vegetation between vineyard rows, surrounding land uses, soil characteristics and topography.

The approach reflected one of Dorin's guiding principles throughout the project.

鈥淏ees don't recognize farm boundaries or distinguish between crop types,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hey move freely across the landscape 鈥� nesting, foraging and dispersing where suitable habitat and resources exist.鈥�

For Dorin, taking that broader perspective is essential to developing conservation strategies that reflect how pollinators experience the landscape. The findings, now published in , reinforce that outlook.

鈥淥ur research found a very high abundance and diversity of wild bees in vineyard agroecosystems, showing that these independent crops can support thriving bee communities,鈥� says Dorin.

The study found that bee communities were shaped by a combination of local and landscape-level conditions. Bee abundance and diversity were typically higher in vineyards surrounded by semi-natural habitats such as forests and treed areas. Taller vegetation between vineyard rows was also linked to healthier bee communities.

Another finding involved nesting habitat. Soil conditions were linked to different types of bees, suggesting conservation efforts must consider not only where pollinators find food, but also where they live and reproduce.

The results were the culmination of years of work for both Dorin and Colla.

Finishing the project, however, was not without its challenges. Examining wild bee communities across vineyard environments from multiple angles was an ambitious undertaking. But Dorin says Colla never made anything feel impossible for her students.

鈥淪he genuinely believed we were capable of succeeding,鈥� says Dorin. 鈥淪he trusted her students with meaningful responsibility, but she was always there when we needed guidance.鈥�

And because research rarely goes exactly as planned, she says, there were plenty of moments when that support was needed. Dorin recalls that whether challenges emerged during fieldwork, in the lab or during data analysis, Colla consistently offered advice, reassurance and a fresh perspective.

That commitment to her students remained unchanged, even as Colla faced significant health challenges.

By then, much of the project's fieldwork had been completed and the focus had shifted to data analysis and writing. Dorin says Colla remained actively involved throughout that stage of the research, continuing to meet with her to discuss results and provide feedback.

鈥淓ven during such a difficult time, she was still thinking about her students,鈥� says Dorin. 鈥淭hat says a great deal about the kind of mentor she was.鈥�

After Colla's death in 2025, finishing the project 鈥� even though much of the work had already been completed 鈥� was difficult for Dorin. She says it was impossible not to think about how much Colla would have enjoyed seeing the final dissertation and the resulting publications.

Dorin also believes Colla would have been especially excited by opportunities to share the findings with farmers, land managers and policymakers.

鈥淪he recognized that good science alone isn't enough,鈥� says Dorin. 鈥淪he believed that meaningful conservation requires research, but also policy, community engagement, education and action.鈥�

That way of thinking continues to shape Dorin's own approach to conservation and her goals for this latest study. She hopes the findings will help bridge the gap between science and on-the-ground land management, and encourage new ways of thinking about how wild bees can be supported 鈥� even in landscapes not traditionally considered pollinator habitat.

The work also contributes to a more nuanced understanding of pollinator conservation. Ontario is home to hundreds of species of wild bees, each with different nesting and foraging requirements, making a one-size-fits-all solution for supporting pollinators unlikely. Instead, Dorin says, understanding how different habitats benefit different species can lead to more informed conservation decisions across agricultural ecosystems.

That includes, she says, thinking beyond individual farms. Pollinator conservation occurs at the landscape scale, meaning it is not only how a vineyard is managed that matters, but also how nearby forests, hedgerows, roadsides, neighbouring croplands and even soils are managed.

Dorin sees those ambitions as a continuation of Colla's influence.

鈥淭hroughout her career, she showed us that conservation is not something achieved in isolation. It requires connecting science with communities, research with action and people with the ecosystems they depend on,鈥� says Dorin.

Dorin was among the many students, researchers and conservation advocates influenced by that philosophy. The vineyard study 鈥� and the hopes she has for its impact 鈥� reflect lessons Colla instilled throughout her career.

鈥淐ompleting this project without her was bittersweet. I wish she could have been there for my defence and to celebrate these publications, but I feel incredibly grateful that I had her mentorship for so much of this journey,鈥� she says. 鈥淪heila was simply one of the best people I've ever known.鈥�

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In oncology clinics, diagnosing disease, monitoring treatment response and tracking tumour growth often begin with a meticulous review of medical images. For oncologists and radiologists, this can mean spending hours measuring tumours and comparing scans to understand how a patient's cancer has changed over time.

Much of that work is still done manually, even when clinicians are carrying out many of the same assessments across large numbers of cases. "There are many occasions where the time of oncologists and radiologists is spent reviewing cases that are very similar," says Sadeghi-Naini.

Spending significant time reviewing scans and performing routine assessments, he says, leaves less time for patients who require more urgent attention.

Sadeghi-Naini and his team at the QUANTIMB Lab are working to change that.

The 91亚色-based lab, led by Sadeghi-Naini, develops AI-powered imaging tools to support cancer care with a focus on helping clinicians process medical scans more efficiently.

鈥淭he idea is to automate things 鈥� to detect the location of the disease, quantify it and generate a report so the clinician can quickly review it,鈥� says Sadeghi-Naini, who teaches in the .

Rather than replacing clinical expertise, the goal is to develop AI tools that act as decision support systems, helping care providers assess scans and prioritize care. The tools are trained using large collections of medical scans, allowing them to identify patterns associated with disease progression and treatment response, which can then be flagged for clinical review.

One area of the lab's work focuses on monitoring brain tumours using MRI scans. For some patients whose cancer has spread to the brain, disease may appear as numerous small lesions scattered throughout the organ. In some cases, Sadeghi-Naini says, patients may have 10, 20 or 30 tumours that must be identified and monitored individually over time to determine whether treatment is working.

To help with that task, the lab has developed AI models that can analyze MRI scans, identifying and tracking small cancerous growths across a series of scans. The technology can automate much of that work and generate information to support treatment decisions, reducing the time clinicians spend manually locating and measuring each tumour over successive scans.

Another long-running project examines how tumours respond to treatment. For patients undergoing chemotherapy, one challenge is determining early on whether a tumour is responding to the drug. In some cases, this may only become clear after months of treatment, by which point valuable time and opportunities to adjust a patient's care may have been lost.

Using ultrasound data, Sadeghi-Naini and his team train AI models to look for biological changes that signal whether tumour cells are dying. By assisting in identifying those signals earlier than conventional monitoring approaches, the technology could give clinicians faster insight into whether a treatment is working. Detecting those changes earlier could help determine whether a different approach is needed.

鈥淚f a patient can be identified as not responding as early as possible, that spares months of ineffective chemotherapy and unnecessary side effects,鈥� says Sadeghi-Naini.

Although the projects focus on different clinical challenges, they are built around the same idea: using AI to extract useful information from medical images and help clinicians make decisions more quickly.

Across these projects, collaboration and human insight play a central role. The lab works closely with hospitals and clinicians, including researchers at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, to access patient data, test new technologies and ensure the tools being developed address real-world clinical needs.

Feedback and guidance from clinical collaborators on the brain tumour monitoring technology have already been positive, says Sadeghi-Naini, who notes that some have expressed interest in using it as a support tool.

The lab is also designing interfaces that make the technology easier for practitioners to use, recognizing that ease of use is key to adoption in real-world settings.

Collaboration with those working directly in the field also helps accelerate the work. The ultrasound project, for example, has advanced to a clinical trial, a milestone that reflects growing interest among health care experts in evaluating the technology.

Although much of his work involves advanced technologies, Sadeghi-Naini says the motivation behind it is simple: helping patients receive the right care at the right time. Tools that monitor disease more efficiently, or determine sooner whether a treatment is working, could improve decision-making throughout the course of treatment and offer more time to focus on patient care.

"At the end of the day, this clinician time can be spent on somebody who actually urgently needs it," he says.

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