2015 Quanta - Research and Innovation at Mohawk College by Mohawk College

Page 6 Innovation Factory is a member of

Andrea Johnson Editor, Quanta Mohawk College

Welcome

Meet some of Mohawk’s great minds who are creating the future, today. Quanta is our annual celebration of research and innovation at Mohawk College. Mohawk is proud to be one of Canada’s top research colleges thanks to iDeaWORKS and our focus on on applied research in energy generation and distribution, additive manufacturing/3D printing and electronic and mobile health solutions. We’ve earned our reputation by giving our talented students, researchers, faculty and staff the chance to explore and invent in the most technologically advanced and well equipped labs in the country. In this issue, we will be meeting some of the people driving innovation at Mohawk. They are the people that serve as the catalysts, the facilitators and the trailblazers in advancing our knowledge in science, technology and human behaviour. We will travel across an ocean and take you to Tanzania, where Mohawk researchers collaborated

with an international team to lay the foundation for an immunization documentation program that will save children’s lives. Closer to home, we look at how an innovative new field of leadership development will pair us with an unexpected partner: a 500 kg horse. We will get a behind-the-scenes-look at how the powerful combination of man and machine at the Additive Manufacturing Resource Centre will transform industry R & D. We will also showcase SURGE, Mohawk’s Entrepreneurship Connection, which is giving Mohawk’s future entrepreneurs access to the tools, resources and mentorship needed to launch new products, services and business. I hope you are inspired and intrigued by Mohawk’s creative and innovative thinkers.

Table of contents URGE: Powering S Entrepreneurship......................1 aster, Easier, F Better Privacy........................... 7 Data is the New Immunity.....11 Printing the Future..................17 Smart & Sustainable...............21 A Helping Horse.................... 25 Playing Games....................... 29 Graphic Storytelling.............. 33 Beyond a Day at the Spa........37 Message from the Chief....... 39

POWERING ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Industry connections, networking, workshops, speaker series, mentoring and coaching, pitch training and competitions. In SURGEâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quest to help startups thrive, they are leaving no opportunity untouched.

SURGE is Mohawkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Entrepreneurship Connection and for the past year, the on-campus resource has been stimulating and fostering a culture of entrepreneurship across Mohawk College while providing students access to start their own sustainable businesses. Run through the McKeil School of Business alongside iDeaWorks and the Faculty of

Engineering Technology SURGE aims to reach out to the entire Mohawk student population across all campuses and programs of study, as well as the greater Hamilton startup community. SURGE Project Coordinator Karen Reiner introduces the vital players of SURGE.

SURGE is a member of

SURGE receives its funding through an On-Campus Entrepreneurship Activities (OCEA) grant as part of the Ontario Youth Jobs Strategy. This funding was issued through the Ontario Centres for Excellence (OCE).

How are you connected to SURGE? In 2014, I was asked to lead the On Campus Entrepreneurship Activities and Initiatives on behalf of the McKeil School of Business and Mohawk College by my Dean and Associate Dean. I am thrilled to have the opportunity not only to mentor and coach students and clients, but to also connect them to resources that will help springboard their entrepreneurial aspirations to new levels.

Melanie Sodtka Professor and Coordinator of Small Business and Entrepreneurship Program and SURGE Faculty Lead

Through different partnerships within the Hamilton community, such as with Innovation Factory, the Small Business and Enterprise Centre, Alumni, iDeaWorks and the Agency, SURGE has been successful in offering students multiple opportunities to learn the critical points and pathways of a start-up. This initiative has gathered tremendous support from all angles and the momentum is strong going into 2015/2016. ow do you see SURGE evolving H in the next year, and what are your hopes for the future of the program? We have big hopes for SURGE in the upcoming year. Based on the levels of success and engagement weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve experienced, we will offer customized event programming for multiple Academic Programs. We will continuously support students

Grow 3

who are currently highly engaged with SURGE, as well as those new start-ups that express interest in the program. To date, we have helped one student entrepreneur who hopes to change the way the world operates with 3-D printing, and another one who aims to add tremendous value to the health and technology sector by developing a new app for those who suffer from Celiac Disease. These are only a couple of the exciting initiatives and examples that SURGE has had the privilege of supporting. What do you think is the most important piece of business advice to give to a young entrepreneur that is just starting out? Never, ever, ever give up. There will be scary and doubtful moments where the negative self-talk will take over. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s so important to keep your perspective and listen to your soul. That is where you will get the truest of answers and guidance.

Describe your role as President of the Mohawk Students’ Association Entrepreneurship Club and your involvement in SURGE I find the title of President to be somewhat of a misnomer. My role is not about leading or directing. The role, as I see it, is about finding the students who might have a seed of interest in starting their own businesses and encouraging it to grow. The Club is a space where students can hash out their business ideas and get constructive feedback from students, faculty, and guests. One of the main goals I have for the Club is to create a nexus where students from different programs can find or trade the skills they need for their ventures without having to worry about funding. My job is simply to connect people together. How have you benefited from SURGE and what do you hope to gain from it in the future? Perhaps the most exciting aspect of being involved with an initiative like SURGE is having the opportunity to meet and converse with people who are creating, or have created, their own entrepreneurial endeavours. Knowing that people are actually doing these things is inspiring and the lessons I have learned from them have become important tools in my entrepreneurial lexicon.

In the upcoming year, I expect I will be able to learn much more from SURGE events and the people participating in them. Once I am finished at Mohawk, I am also hopeful that these new skills will set me apart from the crowd. In last year’s Startup Weekend (Maker Edition) you were part of team that won first prize –explain your winning app idea Crosspoint and what the next steps are in your venture? The idea behind Crosspoint is to find a way that allows people with similar interests to find each other so that they can participate in activities. Too often, we find ourselves looking for something to do or somewhere to go; only to find our circle of friends are either uninterested or unavailable. With the Crosspoint app, we can expand that circle to people who do what you want to do. The next steps for Crosspoint is to continue development into a working and testable platform. Once that is completed, we will launch a beta test that will allow us to measure and determine its usability and, more importantly, popularity.

Aaron Perras Mohawk College Entrepreneurship Club President

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As an entrepreneurial alumnus of Mohawk College, how was your experience as a mentor with the Speed Networking event for the SURGE Launch in May 2015? I thoroughly enjoyed my time during the SURGE speed networking portion of the event. It was refreshing to hear new ideas, developed and undeveloped, from students with passion in self-employment. Describe your company; how long have you been in business, do you have any employees, who are your biggest supporters, where do you hope you will be in a year from now?

Brodie Dawson Owner, Dawsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hot Sauce

Start up 5

Dawsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Hot Sauce is a small batch gourmet company that focuses on quality ingredients and a hands on approach. We are in our third year of business and we are growing steadily. We have some part time assistance in the cooking and packaging process. Our biggest supporters are the people who take the time to comment after tasting on our Facebook and Twitter accounts. It means a lot to see positive reviews from people who are just trying it for the first time and becoming fans. We hope to have a strong presence in Toronto in the next 12 months.

How do you feel Mohawk College has helped you prepare for your entrepreneurial journey? When I was a student I knew very early that I wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t going to work in the field of Journalism. Instead, the time spent at Mohawk built my networking abilities. Building larger groups of peers allowed me to understand how important a solid foundation of believers is to start a venture - independent or otherwise. Without the networking skills being an entrepreneur would be even more challenging. Describe one negative and one positive experience that you have gone through since you launched your business. Great perk, you make your own hours and the only person who gives you any grief is yourself. Big downside, you make your own hours and the only person who gives you any grief is yourself.

Can you tell us about your initial involvement with SURGE? Simpson Wigle has been involved with SURGE since its inception, and as a young business lawyer I jumped at the opportunity to work with SURGE in mentoring, teaching, and partnership capacities. I have given talks on contractual issues for startups and judged the SURGE Pitch It to Win it competition back in April 2015. It is exciting to meet entrepreneurs at the beginning of their careers. Young entrepreneurs and young lawyers have a lot in common; we are interested in creative solutions, adopting new technologies, and responding quickly to the adapting market. What do you think is the most important piece of legal advice to give to a young entrepreneur that is just starting out? Know what your limits are in respect to what you can handle by yourself. There is a vast amount of free information of dubious quality and a temptation to cut corners early in oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s career. Get your first commercial lease fully vetted; same thing applies to employment agreements and contracts especially those you will use again and again.

Never assume that an entity you are contracting with has your best interests at heart or that what a representative of that entity tells you is in the contract is really there. The contract is paramount and the fine print can have a huge impact. What is the biggest challenge and opportunity, respectively, you most commonly encounter with new startups? I have had the pleasure of dealing with a number of new start-ups and I have been impressed by their drive, creativity, and solid understanding of their market. As a factor of my own early-stage career, I am still building the long-term relationships with these entrepreneurs. But I also understand why an entrepreneur doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to spend a lot of money on legal advice, so one challenge is having the same kind of business continuity with an entrepreneur as I have with some of my more established clients. Thanks to SURGE, I can network and meet future business leaders of the region without necessarily having to bill my time, which is refreshing and exciting.

Anders Knudsen

Lawyer from Simpson Wigle Law LLP

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FASTER, EASIER, BETTER PRIVACY By Andrea Johnson

“ Health workers prosecuted for snooping”

As more of our health information is saved, stored and transmitted online, how can doctor-patient confidentiality be maintained?

“ Government vows to change health privacy law” “Data breach exposes information” A quick scan of the headlines in Canada’s major newspapers reveals some alarming news: our health records aren’t always as private as we would like them to be. In October 2014, two staff nurses leaked information about former Toronto mayor Rob Ford’s cancer treatments. As of June 2015, charges have been laid against staff from the Rouge Valley Centenary hospital in

east Toronto who allegedly leaked information about new mothers to a company that sells RESPs. These are just two examples of the many privacy related breaches that have occurred recently in Ontario. In 2014, 400 health care privacy violations were reported to Ontario’s Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. Because reporting privacy breaches is not required in Ontario, reports suggest that this estimate may not actually reflect the true number of privacy breaches, which can include anything from malicious hacker attacks against a

large database to careless record keeping in a small doctor’s office. The proposed updates to the Personal Health Information Protection Act, announced by the Ontario government in June 2015, promises to establish better privacy and security requirements in the health sector and will require that all privacy breaches be reported. Protecting privacy is important. In the case of your digital medical records, it is also a complex process that requires a sophisticated system to protect it from unauthorized use. At Mohawk College, Alex Unruh and David Kirkley are working to protect you from privacy breaches before the data is even inputted into the system. They’ve just spent the first few months of their co-op work term in Mohawk’s mHealth & eHealth Development and Innovation Centre (MEDIC) examining Canada and Ontario’s privacy laws. They are working on a privacy assessment tool that is more than just a Band-Aid

for breaches. It’s a comprehensive privacy checklist that can be used to make sure that any new eHealth or mHealth product can easily check for compliance and ensure that collected data is safe and secure. Paul Brown, Research Project Manager (Software) of iDeaWORKS and supervisor of the co-op students, believes that the privacy assessment tool is a smart solution that will answer a common question. “Many of the clients that came to us had no idea about how to handle privacy and security,” says Brown. “Or they came to us and said: ‘We want to be HIPAA or PHIPAA compliant, where do we start?” “We want our clients to understand the privacy process so we created our own tool,” Brown explains. “No one has ever created an automated tool to make privacy and security this accessible and understandable.”

It’s a privacy assessment tool that is more than just a Band-Aid for breaches.

And the tool isn’t just comprehensive -it is fast. MEDIC’s efforts have made it possible for a digital health company to understand their privacy requirements in just a few days.

very difficult for them to understand unless they had a background in law or had a lot of time,” says Kirkley. “By posing questions in plain English, it is a lot easier for them to understand.”

While reading political legislation may sound like something more suited to a political science student instead of a developer, Unruh and Kirkley appreciated having the opportunity to tackle privacy head-on.

Brown sees additional value in offering the tool on an a-la-carte basis - one that allows MEDIC clients, depending on which stage of the process they are currently at, to understand what is needed as they move through their development.

“When you are working in eHealth, privacy is huge,” says Unruh. “You need to be compliant with all the legislation. A lot of the time you need to have an auditor come in before you even release your application to make sure it is airtight and in line with the legislation.” Kirkley praises the tool for its ability to make the privacy audit process more straightforward.

“The timeline depends on where the company is at in their process. Reading through all of the information can be onerous. We want to give them the opportunity to say: ‘I’m interested in this component, so I can work on this now.’ “

“For custodians and other general users within the different companies, just reading the legislation would be

DATA IS THE NEW IMMUNITY

MEDIC BUILDS VACCINE HEALTH ARCHITECTURE FOR AFRICA

By Rowan Shirkie

“It is a bittersweet irony,” says Ted Scott, Chief Innovation Officer at Mohawk College, “That while technologies like mobile phones have an almost universal reach, millions of people cannot get essential health care.”

It was to take something of the bitter sting out of this equation that the mHealth & eHealth Development and Innovation Centre (MEDIC) at the college partnered in an intricately connected international project to build better health data in Tanzania.

reliable health technology a greater reach.

The East African country was taken on as a lead project of the ‘Better

MEDIC joined an international team gathered for the BID Initiative in Tanzania: IntraHealth International (USA), AIRIS Solutions (Albania), ecGroup (Canada), and the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MoHSW). At the centre

Immunization Data Initiative,’ one of the high-profile ‘pathbreaking solutions’ for global health funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, designed to give affordable and

was PATH, a widely respected international nonprofit organization tasked to develop and deliver health innovations in vaccines, drugs, diagnostics, devices, and systems.

A sign outside a clinic in Tanzania displays the price of medication and health care services.

Routine immunizations and new vaccine introductions have proven to be two of the best investments to improve health around the world. And as the BID Initiative notes, even though current immunization rates in Africa have climbed to near 75 percent, it will require much more “awareness, accessibility, and availability” to reach and protect the last 25 percent. But how do health providers know which of the three A’s matter most, and in which areas? Data. Or, more precisely, better data that will inform better health decisions, and so produce better health. Once that better data is on hand, there must also be better ways found to share and manage it. This is the portion of the mHealth equation in Tanzania that MEDIC researchers at Mohawk set themselves to solve.

to take some advantage of the rapid convergence of information and communications technology.” “Our work was to create an electronic immunization registry in Tanzania. The registry had to operate within the OpenHIE framework [Open Health Information Exchange, a set of freely agreed-upon specifications within the international eHealth community on how to share and collaborate with data]. That meant we had to use global standards and open-source solutions, and be prepared to interoperate with many other health programs and systems,” said Fyfe, as he listed the requirements and challenges set out for MEDIC. “The framework we create for the immunization program must be designed to work reliably with other programs ... for Malaria, HIV, TB, family planning.”

Find out more about the Better Immunization Data Initiative at bidinitiative.org

INTEROPERABILITY: ALL TOGETHER NOW

Tanzania is perhaps the paradigm case for eHealth in Africa, says Justin Fyfe, the Software Architect at Mohawk College who was lead on the Tanzania project. “Although network readiness lags in Tanzania, the eHealth project will look ahead,

The interoperability requirements in Tanzania are very broad, Fyfe goes on to explain. The registry has to work with paper records that move by motorbike courier between remote villages, millions of vaccination cards that remain with the parents of children, migrations and emergencies, and also manage stocks of medical supplies.

The national goal is to register all children from birth -- and there are more than two million births every year in Tanzania -- and follow each child so that all required vaccines are given on schedule. “Vaccination is not immunization,” Fyfe points out. “Vaccines are a medicine. They have to be timed right, given in a proper sequence, and follow a schedule to be effective.” Where there is electricity and large numbers of patients -- in the cities, or district health centres -- vaccinations can be registered with a computer or tablet. In remote areas, with no or only erratic electrical supply, registration can be done with ‘bubble paper.’ Vaccination and other health information is recorded as filled-in circles on standard forms, and the data captured via scans with mobile phones or simple devices -the data simply and efficiently made acceptable by the larger electronic system. Each child is assigned a record with a barcode on the paper registry.

line workers and facilities to keep vaccines on schedule and coverage complete. MEDIC worked quickly: only a few months after the kickoff meeting in mid-January 2015, the registry prototype began trials at selected locations in June in the Arusha Region in northern Tanzania. With tweaks from trial users incorporated, the registry will be rolled out to all 253 health facilities in the region throughout this year and into early 2016.

STANDARDS ARE NOT Better FUN data will As MEDIC Director Duane Bender inform better points out, health decisions “there were 124 requirements set and so produce out by PATH when better health. it asked for software

All the data must converge, says Fyfe, in a way that children can be included and followed accurately in the national immunization registry, and critical data can flow back to front-

development services to create the Tanzanian immunization registry. It had to be easy to use in a ‘low-resource’ environment where data entry might be done via paper forms or mobile phones, yet also be accurate enough and robust enough to safely and efficiently manage the routine immunization of the approximately two million children born every year.” It was the kind of challenge that software architects call ‘fun.’ Less fun, says Bender, is that the work had to be “disciplined” to use standards

and open-source software already in operation. Where resources are scarce, system and software investments previously made have to be preserved. But there is also a need to avoid ‘lock-in’ dependency on a particular product or vendor, Bender says, which might frustrate development of the ‘best’ software architecture or system solution. He adds, that it is in these environments that MEDIC excels, with its “teaming, tooling, testing and training” approach. MEDIC works not just on the machine-readable instructions that direct computers, but on all the challenges -- technical, regulatory, or institutional -- that might constrain development of digital products

Immunization rates in Africa

% 75 reached

or services. As Bender puts it: “We add team strength to projects with expertise in architecture and design. We test and detect problems to reduce time, cost, and risk -- the Tanzanian registry was test run with five million records and 80 simultaneous points of access. We form specialized knowledge into practical, tangible, and scalable tools. And we train. We are, after all, an educational institution. Our product is our capability, and our students.” ROOM E103

Paul Brown is Research Project Manager (Software) of iDeaWORKS, the research and innovation department of Mohawk College, but he introduces himself to a visitor as “chief cat herder” of Room E103, the

unprotected %

MEDIC collaboration workspacereflecting the common belief that “Managing programmers is like herding cats.” Brown introduces Vuk Pejovick, an eHealth records analyst attached to the Tanzania project. (The other analyst, Garrett Tyler, remains plugged into his music and headfirst in a shimmer of screen data.) As a student (and later as a staff hire) Vuk created ‘meaningful use’ reports from the vaccination registry data. These are the tools that frontline health workers and district administrators in Tanzania will use to track antigen coverage (in effect, the purpose of vaccines, to create antibodies against targeted diseases), monitor vaccine stock balances, and

present the progress of immunization by age, location, and nearly a hundred other requested categories. The reports are a history of vaccinations and other health indicators, and also predictive tools that will allow vaccines and related health care to be delivered when and where they are needed. A chilled-air digital mini-paradise, Room E105 is a world apart from Tanzania. But there is also a vital connection that makes them not seem so far apart. Data connects them. Data and partnership in an architecture MEDIC has designed, built, and purposed: better data for better health.

“It has to be robust enough to safely and efficiently manage the routine immunization of the approximately two million children born every year.” says Bender, Director of Mohawk MEDIC.

MOHAWK’S NEW ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING RESOURCE CENTRE

PRINTING THE FUTURE By Jay Robb

The Additive Manufacturing Resource Centre at Mohawk’s Fennell Campus in Hamilton is the first of its kind in Ontario and one of only three in Canada.

Dental implants, surgical instruments and satellite components are among the parts being printed at Mohawk’s new Additive Manufacturing Resource Centre.

research projects. Together, they’re manufacturing prototypes and parts made of titanium, aluminum, nickel, stainless steel, bronze and other metals.

Students and faculty are working with more than 50 entrepreneurs and start-ups, small and mediumsize companies and corporations on game-changing applied

The Additive Manufacturing Resource Centre at Mohawk’s Fennell Campus in Hamilton is the first of its kind in Ontario and one of only three in Canada.

Engineering Professor Robert Gerritsen uses a Direct Metal Laser Sintering system for the additive manufacturing of metal products.

“Advanced manufacturers now have access to leading-edge technology that offers a competitive advantage in the marketplace.” - Tony Thoma, Dean of Engineering Technology, Media and Entertainment next generation of parts designers, technicians and technologists.

The centre serves dual purposes, says Tony Thoma, Dean of Engineering Technology, Media and Entertainment and a licensed professional engineer in Ontario with more than 25 years experience in manufacturing. “We’re meeting a need for our industry partners and creating an opportunity for our students,” says Thoma. “Advanced manufacturers now have access to leading-edge technology that offers a competitive advantage in the marketplace. They also get to work alongside their

Mohawk’s Additive Manufacturing Resource Centre focuses on four categories of projects with industry partners:

“Our students develop skills and gain real world experience that give them a competitive advantage in the job market. Learning by doing is embedded in our DNA at Mohawk and our students are at the forefront of additive manufacturing.” The centre, which opened in Fall 2014, was made possible by grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation and the Ontario Research Fund together with private sector funding. In April, the Government of Canada invested an additional $2.3 million in Mohawk’s Additive Manufacturing Centre. The Natural Sciences and Engineering Resource Council (NSERC) grant is the third to be awarded to Mohawk. Along with additive manufacturing, Mohawk

+ Testing the feasibility of producing existing products with existing designs using additive manufacturing technology in place of conventional processes.

Optimizing existing product designs to improve functionality and quality while reducing costs.

has received NSERC grants to support applied research projects at Mohawk’s eHealth Development and Innovation Centre and Energy Research Centre. “Mohawk has earned an international reputation for helping industry partners enhance competitiveness and productivity and bring innovations to market,” says Thoma. During the past three years, more than 700 students have worked with industry partners on over 100 applied research projects and attracted more

than $11.5 million in government funding. Students from Mohawk’s Faculty of Engineering Technology will work in the Additive Manufacturing Resource Centre as part of their program curriculum. More than 3,500 students are enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering Technology. Mohawk and McMaster University also offer award-winning Bachelor of Technology programs that are the first of its kind in Canada.

+ Designing and developing new products using additive manufacturing technology that could not be manufactured using conventional processes.

Developing and testing new materials to manufacture products using additive manufacturing.

Mohawk’s additive manufacturing resource centre gives competitive advantages to students and industry partners.

SMART & SUSTAINABLE: BUILDING A HOUSE FOR THE FUTURE

By Andrea Johnson

At Mohawk’s Stoney Creek campus, a multidisciplinary research and teaching lab showcases the sustainable and energy efficient future in an ingenious way.

It’s a small two-story house that wouldn’t look out of place on any residential street. But its modest exterior hides a secret: the house is built with the most advanced materials, connected to renewable generation, outfitted with energy efficient heating and cooling technology, utilizing energy storage and wired top to bottom with sensors that monitor insulation efficiency. The house is a living lab, facilitating opportunities for research, innovation and teaching that will benefit industry, academics and teachers. It’s a modern home that allows visitors

to visualize every aspect of energy and power research that is taking place in the space. You can’t find it using Google Maps- the almost-completed eco-friendly house is located at Mohawk’s Stoney Creek Campus, housed within a soaring three story lab space that is dedicated to everything sustainable. The house is part of the Sustainable Resource Centre, a centre dedicated to helping us reduce our environmental impact and focused on the pillars of clean energy, reuse of resources and waste minimization.

Efficient Energy

fuse failures and premature failure of pole-mount transformers.

As more homes adopt energy storage, renewable energy and start selling Mike Dang, a researcher with the back to the grid, Researchers with the Energy Centre, and a retired employee Mohawk College iDeaWORKS Energy of Hydro One, calls the transformer Research Centre - which has labs failures that are coming from the located at both Mohawk’s Fennell and energy efficient appliances “a costly Stoney Creek campuses- wanted to and dangerous failure”. learn more about how it would “Let’s say the utility company bought impact the grid, especially on a transformer to the power distribution hopefully last 50 equipment and years- now it might transformers. Their only last five years,” research interests says Dang. “The cost found a home in the The data and findings of the could keep adding up new eco-house. research will be shared with to the point where in New energy efficient utility companies who are five to ten years’ time, appliances, like our heavily invested in finding the problem would dishwashers and a solution to the expensive be unmanageable. washing machines, problems resulting from Plus, you can’t afford are generating more transformer failure. to lose power in the harmonic frequencies winter- to replace a than their previous iterations. These transformer, homes would be without harmonic frequencies are undesirable, power for two to five hours.” as they impact power quality and Peter Sztur, the Bachelor of can shorten the lives of transformers. Technology in Energy Engineering Energy researchers based at Mohawk student who works with the College recently presented a paper at iDeaWORKS Energy team sums up the 2015 IEEE conference on the topic, the issue with harmonics and the showing how harmonics generated by push on using energy efficient solar, energy-saving home appliances appliances. and electric vehicle chargers pose a “When you are looking at the potential threat to the distribution consumer perspective, it is great network systems. If they are allowed to save money, be sustainable and to continue unabated it could cause

use energy, but at what cost to our utilities companies?” Hands-On House

“It will be a very good research and development house.” says Ivan Sverko. Sverko is a Conventional and Renewable Energies Professor at Mohawk’s Stoney Creek campus. Like the researchers in energy and power, Sverko is also using the house to solve

It’s also linked to solar panels and wind turbines located on the roof of the Stoney Creek campus. “Once we outfit the house with the temperature sensors, we will determine out the amount of heating needed to heat the house, and figure out how efficient the house is at keeping things warm without needing to have a heat source that needs to be used as often,” explains Sverko.

problems and test “If that is the case, new technologies in The sustainable house is a then the house will the area of renewable modern home that allows be a success.” energy. He is just one visitors to visualize every of the many Mohawk The sustainable aspect of the energy and faculty that house, although still power research that is helped in the planning not quite finished, taking place in the space. and implementation is already a home of the lab and he’ll for knowledge, continue to use the lab to innovation and teaching conduct renewable energy projects “We are solving problems, we are and integrate the lab into his teaching reinventing the wheel,” says Sverko. on renewable and sustainable energy systems. “Students can see it instead of studying it. The house is hands-on Sverko, his colleagues and students and something they can discover for are using heat testing to see how themselves.” effective the house is on the whole. The house itself was built using energy efficient materials and has been outfitted with the latest in heating and cooling technology, including geothermal and radiant floor heating.

A HELPING HORSE: Transforming lives through equine-supported coaching By Tiffany Mayer

Anne Porteous is leading her horses and us into a new way of facilitating personal empowerment and growth.

Turns out, leading a horse to water may be a bigger coup than getting him to do anything once you arrive.

to do so, and the effects of that can be a profound reminder of the value of clarity.

Just ask Anne Porteous. A rider for most of her life, the Mohawk nursing professor has recently learned how significant it is to simply walk with an equine companion. In fact, it can be life-changing.

“You’re able to lead a 1,000-pound animal. It’s a powerful message for a person: ‘When I’m clear, I can pretty much do anything,’” Porteous says. “It’s very powerful when a horse chooses to stay with you. It’s very dynamic, very powerful for someone who has been abandoned in life or has experienced isolation”.

Unlike other animals — say, a loyal pooch keen to please — horses only stay by one’s side because they choose

For the past year, Porteous has been exposing others to those positive effects through equine assisted learning and therapy programs offered at her Rockwood farm. She has seen communication, self-respect, boundary setting, empathy, problem solving, confidence and accountability flourish in the people who participate. Those changes haven’t gone unnoticed by her nearly 200 clients either, including corporate types, Mohawk faculty and those receiving psychotherapy. Most recently, it was a group of First Nations youth, from Mohawk’s Project Pathfinder, who benefited from spending time with horses. “When they left, they said ‘I understand the importance of boundaries.’; ‘it helped to build my confidence’; ‘it increased my understanding of what it means to be an effective leader’. These are things I’m seeing in others as well,” Porteous says. “The thing about this

work is it’s totally non-judgmental. You’re working with a horse. Horses don’t have ego’s, they don’t know how to lie, and always tell the truth.” Porteous’s work stems from her own studies of natural horsemanship, an area of inquiry which she took up 10 years ago when she bought her farm and began working closely with her herd. Through that, she really learned about a creature she’d spent much of her life certain she already knew. Horses are intuitive and provide instant feedback to others, either by being relaxed and accepting of someone, or tense, uncertain and stressed. As prey animals, they’re sensitive to the feelings and intentions of people (the predator), and respond accordingly in the moment, sometimes doing what their human companion wants them to, sometimes not. They respond positively to clear, respectful, confident communication. They also mirror people’s inconsistent behaviours, ones their bipedal charges

may or may not be aware of, and which may be holding them back in life. Now Porteous would like to take the anecdotal evidence she has gathered over the past years and turn it into something more formal. In Fall 2014 Porteous joined faculty from McMaster University to form Learning Beyond the Fence. This committee wants qualitative and quantitative data to demonstrate to others of the merits of equine assisted learning and therapy; and how it can complements other experiential education or healing that’s available. “I’m seeing things that I say ‘Wow, that would be great for research,’” she says. “How do you quantify something like this? To reach the doubters, we need to increase the level of research.” And there’s no reason why she can’t, particularly given her connection with Mohawk. Porteous hopes to pilot a program that would help high school

students transitioning to college life and use the results to officially back up what she knows to be true. Once she gets ethics approval, Porteous plans to chronicle the effects of equines on her subjects during the program, then check in with them later to see if they are still applying what they learned in the sessions. Coping with transitional anxiety, nonverbal communication, leadership and teamwork are some of the directions she can take her work. “There are just so many avenues that we can take this,” Porteous says. “You have to be clear in your body language and mind when communicating with animals. In this time where everyone is texting, you can’t text a horse. You have to be very clear in what you want. “It’s not just being around horses,” she adds, “Horses can by our greatest teacher if we are open to the truth.”

By Tiffany Mayer

Tyler Hopper has gotten in the habit of turning off the lights when he leaves a room.

Forget about family board game nights with Monopoly™. Gamification is being used everywherefrom loyalty programs to exercise programs, and now, it’s in the classroom.

Sometimes the second-year business and marketing student will opt to crack the spine of a book rather than fire up his computer, particularly since learning it would take three Earths to sustain his energy consumption. It wasn’t a complicated calculation in math class that told Hopper a change of habits was necessary, however. Nor was it anything he read in a textbook that tipped him off. It was an online sustainability course with a large gaming component that helped it hit home for Hopper that he’s doing the world a favour when he powers down. “It was ‘Oh wow, I’m definitely not as sustainable as

I thought,’” he recalled about the revelation. The course that enlightened Hopper was taught by Shaun Iles, a Mohawk sociology professor who’s winning over students — and teaching them the importance of treading lightly on Mother Earth — by incorporating gamification in his classes. If that sounds like an excuse to play video games for credit, it’s not. Gamification is pervasive outside the classroom, from getting bonus drug store points for buying a certain hair gel to receiving a free coffee after five fill-ups at the gas station. In an academic setting, it bucks traditional “chalk and talk” teaching by using challenges and rewards to foster learning.

I’ve had students say ‘I don’t play video games.’ For them, it’s about the points score. Many Millennials don’t see education as the big prize.

In Iles’ case, he sends students a congratulatory video or awards bonus grades for acing quizzes.“Once they find out there are bonus grades, they really put in the extra effort to get 100 per cent,” Iles says. A cell phone scavenger hunt app highlights eco-friendly features on the Mohawk campus while a video game about a fictional island lets students put the theories they’ve learned into practice. Players learn instantly, and at their own pace, whether their choices about resource management are sustainable. More than that, however, the game helps students relate to course material. “It was a tool to access whenever we wanted to beat it off the bat or to learn about modules about food or water,” Hopper says. Stellar final marks are celebrated with a prizes such as reusable water bottles or solar-powered cell phone charges.

His is the kind of course that Iles would have enjoyed taking while growing up in Oshawa. Gamification might have kept him from dropping out of high school. “I hated teachers telling me how I should be learning,” Iles recalls. “if I had educators that were a lot less rigid, it would have changed my fate, and I could have stood a little more engagement on my part. But at the time, I’d have rather played drums or snowboarded.” In many ways, his own experience with teaching made him the perfect candidate for head of the class. Iles understood the importance of giving students the chance to learn and relay information in ways that worked for them. At Mohawk, he finally met teachers that inspired him to excel academically when he was accepted to study general arts and science at the college

after growing frustrated with going nowhere. He flourished at the college, tackling university next. Iles studied at McMaster before getting his master’s degree in education from the University of Toronto. He returned to Mohawk to teach in 2008 and soon after learned about gamification at a conference where world-renowned game builder Jane McGonigal was a speaker. Something clicked for Iles, who was a video game fiend growing up. “I started seeing the educational merit in the games (my daughter) was playing but there was no way to bring that to the forefront (in an academic setting),” he recalls. Still, he set to work on a template to bring gaming into the classroom without taking away from the course itself. The simulation of life on that fictional island was designed by Vuk Pejovic and Garrett Tyler at

iDeaWORKS, Mohawk’s research and innovation department. “When designing a game for a course, the challenge is making educational components entertaining and enjoyable,” Pejovic said. “We felt that Shaun had a really strong script to follow, which helped build the game.” And it’s helped build Iles’ career into one of storybook proportions. That guy who once gave up on school is now an award-winning teacher, most recently winning the Online Learning Excellence Award from Pearson. Looking back, he’s convinced he could have shown his 17-year-old self the way, too. “He’d have probably called me a sellout,” Iles says with a laugh. “But if I could have sat down with 16 or 17-year-old Shaun, I could have convinced young Shaun this was cool.”

By Jill Tham

The ancient technique of using pictures to tell stories gains traction in the classrooms of the internet age.

Dan Popowich, Professor at Mohawk College, believes that it is essential for educators to evolve in order to meet the needs of their students. “Education, like Anthropology, is survival of the fittest. I was faced with Darwinism and I didn’t want to become extinct.” Along with fellow professor Alan Bourke, these two forward thinking individuals have been driving innovation in the Humanities and Social Sciences Department, exploring different avenues and new technologies to engage their students.

Bourke and Popowich realize that students and their needs have changed exponentially in the last decade. “The change has been dramatic, especially with the development of on-line teaching and learning platforms,” says Alan Bourke, Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences, author and visual artist. “Students have changed. Students are learning in diverse ways and professors must try to accommodate to different types of learning styles. Now they sit in class with tablets and cell phones.”

Sociology, a

very brief history... Auguste Comte coins the term “sociology” and calls for a science of society. Check out what it says in the text about Comte on pgs. 11 - 12.

How do “social forces” impact upon the lives of individuals?

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agent of socialization – and the context in which we first begin to learn and internalize the cultural norms and value system of society

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“If we reflect what students see on television, we need to match that technology in the classroom,” adds Popowich. Popowich, who is also an author and textbook development reviewer, has been with Mohawk for 12 years and recalls using an overhead projector in his early lectures. “I would sketch images that I could

reward than students expressing their gratitude.” Nonetheless, it wasn’t until his son became interested in graphic novels that Popowich realized the effect that varying teaching strategies can have on individuals. “My son brought home a mythological graphic novel and I started getting into the content with him. I understood more about the way

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The Renaissance (meaning “rebirth”) marked the emergence of the modern conceptualization of art we have today. A giant step forward in artistic innovation, it also marked the emergence of the first superstars of the art world...

With The Birth of Venus (1484-1486), Botticelli interprets the birth of the classical Goddess of love and beauty as representing the advent of the Renaissance idea of beauty...

create a discussion about. Then we started using PowerPoint.” Rather than creating a PowerPoint presentation that was inundated with writing, he used a combination of text and pictures. Next, Popowich added a little bit of humour to his presentation slides with great response from his students. “Lectures are a performance. I like to see their lights come on and by the end of the first class they are leaving and saying, ‘Thanks that was awesome,’” says Popowich. “There is no greater

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Leonardo’s mysteriou alluring Mona Lisa (15 06) demonstrates his innovative use of the sfumato mode of pain

he learns when we took a family trip to Greece. He was our tour guide and recalled the mythological Gods from the graphic novels he had read,” states Popowich. Immediately, Popowich brought the idea of using graphic novels in lectures back to the College. Bourke, who has an art background, was very receptive to the idea. “For the students, graphic novels take an intimidating topic and helps demystify it,” explains Bourke. Bourke finds the use of graphic novels in the classroom beneficial for both

teachers and students. “As a professor, it can help me achieve my learning outcomes by differentiating the mode of instruction and how I deliver the information. I use the visual and textual elements of graphic novels as a way to present information to and engage with students on line. Graphic novels make the lectures visually appealing and are an effective and useful balance,” says Bourke.

Artists of the Italian Renaissance looked to the Greco-Roman classical past for inspiration… leading to the dawning of a new age of enlightenment for science, politics and, of course... art.

weren’t predicting the future, they just weren’t the greatest communicators,” he explains. With an open door policy to students and a commitment to out of the box teaching, Bourke and Popowich will ensure that Mohawk’s Humanities and Social Sciences department remains on course and in-line with educational trends and effective teaching strategies.

With a sparsely populated diner and an empty street, Edward Hopper gives us a slice of urban alienation and loneliness in one of the most recognizable paintings in American art, his great work Nighthawks from 1942.

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Their commitment to innovation is one of the reasons why Popowich is recognized internationally when he attends conferences. “They see the name Mohawk College on my name tag and know exactly where I am from,” states Popowich. Mohawk College, who is renowned for their innovation, has continued to move in a forward motion with help from professors like Dan Popowich and Alan Bourke.

So what is next for Popowich and Bourke? “Game Based Learning (Gamification) is underway, as is the continued development in the virtual technology and applying a ‘Create Your Own Adventure, element to courses,” states Popowich. Unlike the Neanderthals, with Bourke and Popowich at the helm, innovation will prevail and continue to be a focus in education at Mohawk College.

Popowich jokes that Neanderthals came up with the concept. “They

BEYOND A DAY AT THE SPA THE FUTURE OF MASSAGE THERAPY By Andrea Johnson

If you ask Ron McKerracher where his creativity as a professional and as an instructor is leading him, he’ll give you a surprising answer. “Language.” The new model of how massage therapy in healthcare means a new way of thinking in the classroom.

McKerracher isn’t a professor of communications or English literature. He’s a Registered Massage Therapist (RMT) with his own practice in Toronto and is a part time professor of massage therapy at Mohawk College. Although he works primarily with his hands, McKerracher believes it is important to share with his students and clients the importance of words.

“In any medical setting there is a disconnect between medical language and its understanding,” explains McKerracher. ”I love the idea of taking complex knowledge and articulating it so that people can have an empowered understanding of their circumstances.” McKerracher’s emphasis on communicating medical language is intentional. In his practice and in his teaching, he’s reflecting a paradigm shift about how we think about massage therapy. “Historically, the place has been outside the healthcare field as an

Ron McKerracher Professor of Massage Therapy

“Massage therapists have a responsibility to become fully integrated as a healthcare practitioner.”

alternative field,” says McKerracher about the identification of massage therapy as a ‘day at the spa’. “The nice thing about our field is that it is growing and becoming more mainstream. With that there is a responsibility to become really integrated as a healthcare practitioner in the context of other healthcare practitioners.”

Within the classroom, and at Mohawk’s Massage Therapy Student Clinic, he believes that students must master more than just technique; they must also have a strong understanding of how to develop goal-oriented treatment plans that can effectively help a client with their physical pain. And unquestionably, they must also be skilled communicators.

McKerracher is dedicated to helping the next generation of massage therapists understand their place within the healthcare treatment model- where physician referrals for ailments such as back pain have become more commonplace.

“As a therapist, we have the unique opportunity to have an hour at a time with our client, so we can relate complex issues in a way they understand. We can become a resource to them.”

A message from the Chief iDeaWORKS, a Catalyst for Innovation In a world where change is rapidly upon us, the traditional role that Mohawk has played in the community is also changing. Collaboration is our strategic goal Ted Scott Chief Innovation Officer Mohawk College

As the forces of disruptive new technologies and shifting business models reverberate in the healthcare, manufacturing and the energy sectors, Mohawk has adapted and thrived. Our close connections with our employers and our community partners has informed the college’s mandate and led to the creation of centres of excellence in digital health, energy technologies and additive manufacturing. Part of our community As a community catalyst, Mohawk is helping make one-of-a-kind connections with a positive economic impact. We’re providing private sector collaborators with a place to connect and network with innovative leaders in their ecosystem.

“We are focused on developing and leveraging the creative potential of our faculty, students and community collaborators.”

Our annual “Apps for Health” event is a great example of the power of connecting industry, academic and healthcare providers together in a way that can generate new opportunities for innovation. Since its inception, our students and community partners have used this event to create unique startup companies and begin new projects to solve some of the most compelling healthcare challenges facing healthcare providers. More recently, our new on-campus entrepreneurship program, SURGE, is providing opportunities for our students

to connect and receive support for their initiatives through partners like Innovation Factory, Hamilton’s regional innovation centre, and McMaster University’s campus led accelerator, the Forge. Exploring the creative potential Mohawk’s iDeaWORKS provides leadership in entrepreneurship, applied research and innovation in learning. We are focused on developing and leveraging the creative potential of our faculty, students and community collaborators. The college and community have generated a depth and breadth of creative projects that have supported teaching and learning. Our faculty and students are embracing powerful new approaches to learning that will drive engagement and better learning outcomes. Using gamification, and other learning centered techniques, opportunities for innovation in education have never been more accessible or enjoyable. Through iDeaWORKS, we are demonstrating the very tangible benefits that come from embracing collaboration, aligning to our community needs and committing to excellence. This open and pragmatic approach to our work along with our continued drive for success- has brought global reach to our research and resonated locally with our community.

Year in Review 2014-2015

Mohawkâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s centre for applied research is iDeaWORKS. iDeaWORKS is a regional centre for industry commercialization, entrepreneurial collaboration and creativity. mohawkcollege.ca/ideaworks Many thanks to our funders and industry partners including:

Become future ready with the help of Mohawk College Mohawk is proud to collaborate with our partners to create real-world solutions that bring innovative ideas to the marketplace.

MEDIC: mHEALTH AND eHEALTH DEVELOPMENT AND INNOVATION CENTRE MEDIC provides tooling, training, teaming and testing services for organizations and companies in the healthcare IT sector.

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING RESOURCE CENTRE

ENERGY RESEARCH CENTRE

Providing students hands-on, real-world experience with 3D printing.

Researchers, professional engineers, technologists, technicians and students help industry evaluate, develop and refine the technologies required for the modernization of electrical power systems.

Mohawk is partnering with industry leaders to be in the forefront of this new technology.

To learn more about partnership opportunities contact Andrea Johnson at andrea.johnson4@mohawkcollege.ca or 905.575.1212 ext. 4082