Search here...
Home Blog

Real-World Investment Lessons

Dan Rubinstein
-
0
Real-World Investment Lessons

Financial markets are a complicated puzzle, shaped by uncertainty and risk and the behavioural biases that can influence investment decisions. Determining whether it’s prudent to buy stock in a particular company is challenging, even without the onslaught of tariffs and global conflicts injecting additional turmoil into the picture.

Learning how to navigate this realm is not easy, but the Sprott Student Investment Fund (SSIF) at Carleton University has taken the most realistic pedagogical approach possible — and the results speak for themselves.

Since the SSIF was established nearly 20 years ago, students who manage the fund have grown initial contributions from the Sprott School of Business endowment fund totalling $550,000 into more than $3.3 million in assets — a cumulative average return of about 17 per cent, exceeding the benchmark they’re aiming to beat. The fact that they’re investing real money is the key to their financial education, as well as a boom for the university’s bank account.

A man in a black dress jacket and white button up shirt poses for a photo.
Sprott School of Business Dean and SSIF faculty advisor Howard Nemiroff

“It’s one thing to simulate investing, but understanding that you are managing other people’s money for real, and the fiduciary responsibility that comes with that, is a crucial part of the learning process,” says Sprott Dean and SSIF faculty advisor Howard Nemiroff, who started the fund in 2007.

“These students are contending with risk and must be accountable for their decisions. They meet with Carleton’s investment committee regularly to defend their portfolio, like other asset managers have to do. They’re being asked the same tough questions they would face at financial firms on Bay Street or Wall Street.

“This not only prepares them for job interviews and careers, it teaches them how critical it is to be responsible when you’re managing somebody else’s money.”

Professional Fund Structure

The SSIF’s structure mirrors that of a professional investment fund. The team is comprised of roughly 20 portfolio managers, sector managers, equity analysts, marketing analysts and interns, with early-year undergraduates typically rising through the ranks into leadership positions. The majority are concentrating in finance, with a few Master of Finance and MBA students also joining.

Specific stocks are discussed at weekly meetings and decisions are made based on the fund’s guiding philosophy — maximizing the value of its assets over the long term by building a portfolio of wealth creating firms — and robust environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations.

A computer monitor displays stock market information.
Photo by gorodenkoff / iStock

Students learn how to parse what Nemiroff calls the “macro factors” that impact markets, such as the relationship between housing starts and copper prices, or extreme volatility in the tech sector.

“Without exception, something happens that we never thought would happen,” he says, “and you always have to be prepared for what you’re not prepared for.”

But perhaps the biggest lesson for students is that the client’s needs trump their own. “If your client wants to divest of a particular type of stock, it’s critical for the advisor to check their politics at the door,” says Nemiroff. “Understanding that the role of an advisor is to identify opportunities that adhere to the client’s philosophy and then execute on those opportunities gives our graduates the insights needed to secure great jobs in cities like Toronto, London, New York and Hong Kong.”

Research and Critical Thinking

Morgan Combden, a third-year Sprott finance student and SSIF portfolio manager, is already eyeing a career in asset management and knows that her experience with the fund will help show prospective employers what she’s capable of.

Starting as a first-year intern, her knowledge has evolved from sector-specific expertise to a broad, overarching perspective of portfolio performance. “As a long-term fund, we’re trying to outperform average returns,” says Combden. “When there’s short-term volatility, our strategy is to reassess our holdings without reacting rashly to current events.”

A woman wearing a dark dress suit smiles for the camera.
Sprott School of Business finance student Morgan Combden

This experiential learning complements what she’s studying in class, helping her develop valuable skills.

“Working on the fund makes us think more critically about the risks that are posed when you’re proposing an investment, because there could be real consequences if it doesn’t pan out,” says Combden. “That enforces the need to dig deeper into your research.”

As a woman in what remains a predominantly male field, Combden is also leaning into mentorship. She has benefited from the support of women SSIF alumni and encourages the next generation of young women at Carleton to follow their interests into finance.

“It can be difficult when you don’t see representations of yourself,” she says, “but that’s why it’s important to become those representations, to show it’s possible to take advantage of opportunities in finance and be just as successful as men. It’s a continual cycle of learning and collaboration.”

–
More The New Economy

Lead image by metamorworks / iStock

When Hate Goes Viral

Ahmed Minhas
-
0
When Hate Goes Viral

Conspiracy theories aren’t new. For centuries, they’ve been used to target groups cast as outsiders, from anti-Semitic myths in Europe to misogynistic and xenophobic narratives that frame social change as a threat. These stories have been used to divide societies and consolidate power.

Today, those same dynamics are playing out in a digital world where misinformation spreads faster, reaches wider audiences and shapes public discourse in ways that undermine trust and threaten democratic institutions.

Carleton University professors Jennifer Evans and Sandra Robinson researching conspiracy theories and misinformation.
Carleton University history professor Jennifer Evans and Carleton University master’s student Fionnuala Braun (photo by Brenna Mackay)

Carleton University history professor Jennifer Evans is studying how conspiracy theories evolve and why they resonate. Leading the Populist Publics project with Carleton communications professor Sandra Robinson, Evans is tracing conspiracy narratives across history to understand when they emerge, who they target and how they adapt to new media.

Her goal is to help people develop the critical skills needed to recognize and resist conspiratorial thinking.

A Historian’s View on Modern Conspiracy

We can’t understand conspiracy theories without looking at how information circulates online, according to Evans.

“The biggest change is social media,” she says.

“Our belief that we understand how it works because we’re users is harmful. The mechanisms aren’t transparent and it takes sophisticated tools to interpret what we see.”

People feel like they have a window into what others think online, but they’re seeing a curated perspective shaped by algorithms, influencers and bad actors.

Evans’ research shows that conspiracy theories tend to surface at moments of upheaval — economic instability, pandemics, political disruption — when people are trying to make sense of rapid change.

A woman wearing a dark coloured sweater poses for a photo in front of a bookshelf.
Carleton University history professor Jennifer Evans (photo by Brenna Mackay)

“Conspiracy theories are best understood as having both irrational and rational elements,” she explains.

“People are trying to find answers and language to interpret massive changes around them and they land on alternative explanations that make sense to them.”

Those explanations fill gaps left by institutions struggling to communicate clearly or quickly. During COVID-19, for example, shifting guidance, confusing messaging and gaps in public communication created fertile ground for misinformation.

Fionnuala Braun — a Carleton master’s student working with Evans who studies trust and misinformation in the public health sphere — says conspiracies often begin with uncertainty, not ideology.

“People are drawn to conspiracy theories when official sources are confusing,” says Braun.

“When they feel they’re not being told the full story, they’ll turn to unofficial and unreliable sources.”

A woman wearing a dark jacket poses for a photo in front of a large bookshelf.
Carleton University master’s student Fionnuala Braun (photo by Brenna Mackay)

A digital ecosystem that rewards outrage lets fringe ideas move quickly into mainstream spaces. Conspiracy narratives targeting racial, religious, queer and trans communities can be amplified by politicians and media figures, then repeated as everyday talking points.

For Evans, that shift is a warning sign. She views the targeting of minorities as a bellwether for the health and safety of a democracy, and says we need to pay close attention when radical ideas become normalized in everyday speech.

Countering Conspiracies Through Literacy and Empathy

If conspiracy theories thrive on confusion and mistrust, countering them requires more than debunking false claims. Evans is focused on practical ways for classrooms, communities and public institutions to respond.

A key strategy is translating research into tools people can use.

“We’re writing policy briefs and best practices for diverse groups — governments, social workers, teachers, professional organizations,” says Evans.

“We’re also developing teaching modules, because teachers are the frontline. They can help students approach and navigate complex issues.”

Digital literacy is another cornerstone. Evans notes that AI-generated content has made manipulation difficult to spot, especially for the average person.

“It’s much harder for us to see manipulation,” she says. “We have a really hard time distinguishing between truth and fiction, and that’s a massive challenge.”

A woman holds a magnifying glass over her mobile phone.
Photo by Nadzeya Haroshka / iStock

How we react to misinformation matters as much as what we say, says Braun, who cautions against approaches that centre on argument and correction alone.

“Debunking doesn’t work,” she says.

“Nobody wants to be talked at. The best thing you can do is be empathetic — let people know you’re listening.”

Instead of cutting people off, Braun emphasizes keeping lines of communication open, acknowledging confusion and shared frustrations and building trust over time. Undoing misinformation is a slow process but essential to prevent people from drifting further towards harmful, conspiratorial communities.

Evans’ team is also exploring short-form digital storytelling and creative collaboration to foster empathy and reflection, bringing together students and people affected by hate to share experiences and think about how conspiracy-driven narratives shape their lives.

There’s no quick fix to countering conspiracy theories. By combining historical insight, digital literacy, policy guidance and empathy, a future where fewer people are vulnerable to narratives that weaponize fear and where democratic societies are more resilient against them is within reach.

–
More Social Innovation

Lead image by Thx4Stock / iStock

Confronting the Financialization of Housing

Dan Rubinstein
-
0
Confronting the Financialization of Housing

Access to housing is a fundamental human right in Canada, yet roughly 1.7 million households do not have an affordable or safe place to live.

The situation has been described as a “crisis,” but using that word is misleading, according to Carleton University’s Jessica Parish, a researcher in the School of Public Policy and Administration. That’s because “crisis” implies that a challenge was unforeseeable and doesn’t persist for long, whereas the barriers to suitable housing circa 2026 were predictable and can be seen as the outcome of a neoliberal economy that’s working as intended.

The financialization of housing — treating the places where we live increasingly like monetary assets — is the core of the problem, says Parish. To her, the proliferation of “financial actors and instruments” in the housing sector is the main reason why so many people cannot afford to either rent or buy a home.

“Lots of indicators show us the ways in which our housing system is failing so many different people in different ways,” says Parish.

“There are some fairly straightforward solutions. They won’t fix everything, but they would make things better pretty quickly.”

A woman with short hair and glasses, wearing a blue sweater, poses for a photo while holding a railing.
Carleton University researcher Jessica Parish (photo by Brenna Mackay)

The Case for Rent Control

One of the indicators that Parish looks to is the rental housing wage calculated by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives — the hourly income one needs to earn to afford rent in cities across the country.

The most recent figures, for 2024, were $48.94 and $44.80 per hour in Vancouver and Toronto, two most expensive cities, and $36.85 in Ottawa. Considering that one’s rent should be less than 30 per cent of their pre-tax income to meet the conventional affordability benchmark, this index paints a troubling picture when actual wages are considered.

“Rising housing costs are only part of this story,” says Parish.

“Declining real wages are another significant factor, as is the expansion of household debt, which is regressively distributed. Just like the lack of access to adequate housing, female-headed, racialized and newcomer households face labour market discrimination, higher borrowing costs and higher debt-to-income ratios. We need to start seeing these connections.”

Three apartment buildings in Ottawa.
Small apartment buildings on a residential street in Ottawa, ON (photo by BalkansCat / iStock)

The encroachment of financial landlords, including private equity funds, pension funds and real estate investment trusts, or REITs, into the residential rental market has exacerbated this precarity. REITs are companies that own income-producing properties. Since they were allowed to operate in Canada in the mid-1990s, they have been purchasing apartment buildings and increasing rent to maximize profits for shareholders — a concerning trend in a country where one-third of all households are renters, a measure that’s rising.

Provincial rules stipulate how much landlords can raise rents, but if a tenant leaves a unit, those limits go out the window. In Ontario, this policy is known as “vacancy decontrol” and it doesn’t even apply to all households. In 2018, the province passed legislation to exempt rentals going onto the market for the first time from any rent control. These policies have led to massive rent inflation while also incentivizing “renovictions” — landlords evicting tenants to do repairs and then increasing the rent, sometimes dramatically.

This is why Parish says that more effective rent control is the logical first step toward affordable housing. A variety of regulatory mechanisms could be deployed, such as the federal government tying the money it transfers to provinces for housing to their rent control policies.

A stack of books in various sizes and colours.
Photo by Brenna Mackay

How to Build at Scale

Last fall, with an initial investment of $13 billion, the federal government launched Build Canada Homes (BCH), a new agency tasked with kickstarting the construction of thousands of affordable units.

To Parish, the acknowledgement that “the private market alone cannot provide affordable housing options” is welcome. However, the design of BCH has yet to be finalized, and the disbursement of funds is premised on the ability to attract investment partners, so it’s not clear whether the agency can deliver the millions of permanently affordable homes that Canada needs.

Her research, some of which was conducted in the U.K., explores the role of ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing in real estate. It shows that even corporate landlords that present themselves as socially conscious and are backed by “patient” pension capital balk at the idea of legislated rent controls.

“This shows that we can’t fix the affordability problem through market incentives, ESG linked or otherwise,” Parish says.

“We need government leadership both in terms of investment, to build affordable housing at scale, and regulation, to keep it affordable in perpetuity. And we need to show solidarity with tenants who are becoming increasingly organized. After all, landlords and real estate entities routinely lobby for their interests.”

An aerial view of the Ottawa neighbourhood Barrhaven.
Aerial view of Barrhaven, a suburban housing development in Ottawa (photo by Artem Onoprienko / iStock)

Lead image by J Duquette / iStock

–
More Social Innovation

Protecting People from Earthquakes

Dan Rubinstein
-
0
Protecting People from Earthquakes

Earthquakes are among the most destructive natural disasters on the planet. They typically happen when the tectonic plates that form the Earth’s outer shell, which are in constant motion, get stuck against each other. Pressure builds where these massive slabs of rock meet until it becomes too intense and the plates slip, releasing a massive amount of energy that creates seismic waves.

Every year, tens of thousands of people die in earthquakes around the world and the estimated cost of responding and rebuilding accounts for roughly one-quarter of annual global natural disaster losses, which ranges from $200 to $300 billion USD. And while public concern about the next Big One in North America is often focused on the west coast, the more populated eastern side of the continent faces similar seismic threats.

Carleton researchers in the earthquake sim laboratory using various pieces of equipment.
All of this is the backdrop to work underway in Carleton University’s unique Canada Foundation for Innovation-funded structures lab, where a team of Civil and Environmental Engineering researchers is conducting tests to better understand how buildings and their internal components respond to intense shaking — and, ultimately, how they can be designed differently to minimize injuries and damage.

“Mostly what we do here is try to break things,” says Prof. Jeffrey Erochko, who is using new state-of-the-art earthquake simulation technology in a project with Prof. David Lau and PhD student Cameron Flude to investigate what happens to suspended ceilings during earthquakes.

“We can simulate how the movement that occurs during an earthquake affects any part of a 100-floor building, and then we push the structure to the limit to determine the exact point of failure. This will help us design better buildings that can withstand quakes.”

Bend But Don’t Break

Designing buildings that “bend but don’t break” during an earthquake is one of the most complex challenges faced by engineers, according to Lau, but a lot of progress has been made in recent decades.

We generally know how to construct buildings that satisfy the hazard spectrum, a design tool that accounts for earthquake risk in specific regions. Engineers also make design decisions based on building type. A nuclear power plant has to comply with more stringent standards than an office complex, for example.

These decisions are made to save lives, prevent costly damage and ensure that certain buildings, such as hospitals, remain operational after an earthquake.

“We’re at the point that we can design a building at the appropriate safety and performance level,” says Lau, “but the non-structural parts have been neglected for a long time.”

Role of Suspended Ceilings

Non-structural elements such as suspended ceilings, along with electrical and HVAC systems, gas lines, communication cables and other mechanical features, are an essential part of a functional building.

If ceilings collapse, people might be afraid that a perfectly safe building is in jeopardy and run outside, where they can get in the way of emergency responders. This happened during the huge 2011 Tohoku earthquake in Japan, says Lau, who has travelled and collaborated with researchers around the world to assess the impact of quakes.

Researchers walking under the simulator inspecting damaged structure from the testing.

Improving the design of non-structural building components will not only minimize injuries, it will also reduce recovery costs and timelines.

“Our work can have a significant economic impact, especially for smaller earthquakes, which happen much more frequently,” says Erochko.

“This is a way to support community resilience.”

Internationally Significant Research

Carleton’s simulation technology is the domain of Flude, who came back to university after a decade working as a structural engineer.

Typically used for flight simulators and other transportation research, this project is the first time it is being applied toward earthquake engineering, drawing interest from collaborators in Japan, Taiwan, the U.S. and other countries.

A full-scale building mock-up complete with suspended ceilings can be mounted on four “shake” tables, which can move horizontally, vertically and rotate. This allows the team to simulate how various floors of a building will sway during a quake, with advanced instrumentation tracking the movement of components in real-time.

The testing they’re now doing intensifies incrementally from minor to major tremors, allowing the team to evaluate the structural properties of and damage to the ceiling throughout the process.

“We’ll be able to see when panels pop out and fall,” says Flude, explaining that while ceilings are the initial focus, other components could be studied next, and that the data they acquire can be applied toward enhancing design codes and upgrading existing buildings.

“Our overall goal,” he adds, “is to help protect people, save money and make society more resilient.”

–
Imagery and Video by Brenna Mackay and Terence Ho

A Clearer Picture for Prostate Cancer Diagnosis

Dan Rubinstein
-
0
A Clearer Picture for Prostate Cancer Diagnosis


Every single day, an average of 14 men in Canada die of prostate cancer. This startling number has driven researchers to do something about it.

As with all cancers, early detection can lead to less aggressive and more successful treatment, but current diagnostic methods are problematic. Men deemed at-risk undergo a series of tests, including bloodwork and an MRI. If the results are concerning, the next step is typically a targeted biopsy, during which doctors use an ultrasound probe to essentially “guess” where the MRI-identified lesion may be and insert a needle into the prostate to take a tissue sample for analysis.

A negative biopsy does not mean the patient is cancer-free, however. It could be because the wrong location was sampled. One or several more biopsies often follow — an invasive and costly procedure.

A man wearing a dress shirt and a hat poses for a photo with his arms crossed.
Carleton University Systems and Computer Engineering researcher Carlos Rossa

“There’s a lot of uncertainty in this clinical pathway,” says Carlos Rossa, a Systems and Computer Engineering researcher at Carleton University.

“There’s anxiety for patients, and repeating biopsies is far from ideal.”

This challenge is why Rossa and a multidisciplinary team, including Carleton researcher Andy Adler and Dr. Nicola Schieda at The Ottawa Hospital, have embarked on an ambitious project to develop a more accurate diagnostic tool.

“We’re working on a way to determine whether the needle has been placed in the right location before a sample is taken,” explains Rossa. “This is a fundamentally new approach to imaging specifically designed for prostate cancer.”

A man holding a medical tool used for early prostate cancer detection.
A biopsy tool used for prostate cancer detection

A New Imaging Frontier

In simple terms, the Carleton-led team is attempting to convert a regular surgical needle into an imaging tool by equipping the instrument with a sensor that can measure the acoustoelectric properties of the tissue it’s passing through.

When cancer develops in the prostate, the water content of tissue changes, altering its electrical properties. A sensor at the tip of a needle can be used to determine whether it is entering healthy tissue or a lesion.

At the same time, if the prostate is being exposed to localized ultrasonic pressure, tissue will compress and expand, providing the sensor with acoustic data that can be translated into a tomographic image or “map” that reveals whether and precisely where there is cancer.

A man wearing a vest poses for a photo with his arms crossed.
Carleton University Systems and Computer Engineering researcher Andy Adler

“Anything abnormal in the tissue should show up,” says Adler, who is also in Systems and Computer Engineering.

“Doctors are already inserting a needle and doing an ultrasound. We want to provide them with more information.”

This project is being supported by the federal government’s New Frontiers in Research Fund, which encourages high-risk, high-reward research.

The reward is obvious: better outcomes for patients and less strain on our health-care system. But there are a lot of intricate physics puzzles to address for the technology to be effective.

“The magnitude of the measurements we’re looking at is about 10 billion times smaller than the magnitude of the voltage in an electrical outlet,” says Rossa.

“We’re looking for tiny signals in an environment that has a lot of electrical noise, then have to convert these signals into images. The risk comes from the fact that nobody has ever done this before.”

Two people working together at a computer station.
Photo by Ode Films

From Diagnosis to Treatment

The group collaborating on this research has expertise in biomedical, electrical and computer engineering, with crucial direction from clinicians at The Ottawa Hospital.

Although prostate cancer is the focus, it has potential applications to other conditions, such as breast and liver cancer, and could also improve cardiologic imaging. “Anywhere you use needles, catheters or ultrasound could benefit,” says Adler.

While diagnosis is the initial thrust, this methodology could also guide treatment.

“One of the main therapies for prostate cancer is using needles to deliver radioactive ‘seeds’ near the lesion,” says Rossa.

“The seeds destroy the cancer cells, but you’re subjecting all of the tissue to this radiation instead of concentrating the dose in the lesion because you can’t reliably tell where the lesion is with ultrasound. If we can generate a tissue map, we can concentrate the radiation in specific locations.”

Two people posing together for a photo.
Photo by Ode Films

The researchers hope to validate their technology on prostate tissue that has been removed from patients at The Ottawa Hospital within the next year and continue moving from the lab toward clinical deployment.

“We hope that through this exciting technology we can provide more accurate needle biopsy diagnosis of prostate cancer for our patients,” says Dr. Schieda, “potentially reducing time to diagnosis and treatment, eliminating the need for repeat biopsy and ultimately improving outcomes.”

–
More Health and Wellness | Follow Carleton Engineering on LinkedIn for Research Updates

Lead image by peakSTOCK / iStock

Protecting Canadians from Mosquito-Borne Diseases

Dan Rubinstein
-
0
Protecting Canadians from Mosquito-Borne Diseases

It’s a sound Canadians know all too well: the high-pitch whine of a mosquito buzzing past your ear. Beyond annoyance and itchy bites, the emergence of clouds of these insects every spring also brings the risk of mosquito-borne diseases.

In this part of the world, two of the most common concerns are West Nile virus and eastern equine encephalitis virus. Although asymptomatic cases and minor reactions are the norm, both can cause severe neurological illness and even death.

People can protect themselves by covering their skin or using repellent, but warmer temperatures caused by climate change and more standing water from heavy rain could increase the amount of habitat and facilitate the northward migration of new species into Canada.

A man wearing a lab coat smiles for the camera while standing in a lab.
Carleton University PhD candidate Marc Avramov (photo by Terence Ho)

In other words, disease dynamics are changing, and keeping humans and other animals safe from potentially dangerous illnesses is an increasingly complex puzzle. Which is why Carleton University PhD candidate Marc Avramov is zooming in to develop a more detailed picture of where and when transmission occurs — and, ultimately, how to mitigate this risk.

“We’re trying to increase the resolution at which we track these diseases,” says Avramov, a member of Carleton biologist Catherine Cullingham’s Genomics of Plants, Pests and Populations research group.

“We need to identity the environments where mosquitoes are the most abundant, the locations where we see pathogens and what time of year transmission takes place. We combine all this data, do some modelling and our findings can be used to inform risk assessment and public outreach.”

A man working while seated inside a lab.
Photo by Terence Ho

The Central Vector in Disease Transmission

Most mosquito-borne disease surveillance today employs a “shotgun approach,” according to Avramov. Mosquitoes are trapped and tested and the results reveal where specific pathogens are present.

This type of surveillance is economically efficient but provides an incomplete picture because mosquitoes are a vector that transmit disease from one living being to another.

A mosquito bites a bird infected with West Nile virus or eastern equine encephalitis, for example, or a deer carrying eastern Jamestown Canyon virus, which can also cause neurological problems. If that mosquito bites a human, transmission can occur. Simply knowing where diseases are present doesn’t give public health authorities enough information to act upon.

“Transmission dynamics are complex because there are so many different species involved,” says Avramov.

“The mosquito is central to this whole equation, but our models also incorporate information about disease hosts, including birds and mammals, and the environments where this interplay takes place. We look at all of the elements in the disease cycle.”

Three people wearing lab coats pose for a group photo.
Avramov with undergradute student Rayan St-Amant and master’s student Roqeeb Akinbile (photo by Terence Ho)

Over the past six years, Avramov’s team has been capturing mosquitoes at nearly 100 locations in the Ottawa region, from parks and conservation areas to farms and residential neighbourhoods. They collect anywhere from a few insects to 10,000 in a single trap.

There are more than 80 established mosquito species in Canada, and more than four dozen in and around Ottawa. After the species Avramov collects are identified, he freezes the sample, makes “mosquito soup” using the lab’s homogenizer and studies it to determine the presence of pathogens.

This information is shared with collaborators at the Public Health Agency of Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, who can recommend localized precautions or interventions, such as larvicide programs to reduce mosquito populations.

A mosquito biting a human hand.
Photo by Stephen Waycott / iStock

New Species Migrating North into Canada

Different species of mosquito carry different diseases. Two types found in the Ottawa area, Culex pipiens/restuans and Coquilletidia perturbans, are known vectors for West Nile virus and eastern equine encephalitis, among other diseases.

Another species found locally, Aedes triseriatus, is being monitored because it can carry La Crosse virus, a member of the California serogroup of viruses that’s present in hosts such as chipmunks and squirrels. La Crosse symptoms in humans are typically mild but can include fever, nausea, vomiting and, in severe cases, inflammation of the brain. So far, La Crosse has been identified in New York State but not in Eastern Ontario.

“Climate change can make environments more suitable for exotic species,” says Avramov.

“Species can move north from warmer regions, and if the conditions allow for it, they can establish themselves in new areas. So we’re on the lookout for emerging pathogens that are creeping from the U.S. into Canada.”

The risk of getting bit doesn’t mean people should stay indoors, however. To Avramov, dealing with mosquitoes is “the price of admission” for spending time in nature.

A scientist taking lab samples out of a freezer.
Photo by Terence Ho

–
More Health and Wellness

Lead image by Phisutha Somsena / iStock

Wildfires in Canada

Dan Rubinstein
-
0
Wildfires in Canada

More than 6,000 wildfires burned across Canada in 2023, torching an area larger than England — the country’s most destructive fire season ever. In communities such as Yellowknife, Toronto and New York City, the sky turned an eerie orange in the middle of the day, whether there were fires nearby or hundreds of kilometres away.

A study published in Nature estimated that from June 26 to July 7, 2023, exposure to wildfire smoke caused 5,400 acute deaths in North America. Over the course of the year, the smoke was responsible for 82,100 premature deaths worldwide.

While the last two years have not been as devastating as 2023, the higher temperatures and widespread drought conditions caused by climate change will continue to make Canada’s forests a tinderbox. And although the best way to safeguard public health is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, especially from the burning of fossil fuels, researchers at Carleton University have embarked on several projects to help alleviate the impacts of wildfire smoke.

Smoke rising from a forest.
Forest fire in the Canadian Rockies (photo by Jason Joyce / iStock)

How Wildfire Smoke Moves Through the Atmosphere

Amir Hakami, from Carleton’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, specializes in air quality modelling. His research aims to inform policy decisions by providing an assessment framework for climate change mitigation and public health measures.

Outdoor air pollution is one of the leading causes of death and illness around the world and Hakami has been paying increasing attention to wildfire smoke in recent years. But ascertaining how pollutants such as fine particulate matter travel through the atmosphere is challenging.

“Basically, we’re trying to estimate the concentration of pollutants that emerge from wildfires,” says Hakami, “and better understand how these pollutants move through time and space.”

A man poses for a photo while seated with his arms crossed.
Carleton University Civil and Environmental Engineering researcher Amir Hakami

Hakami knows that you can’t manage what you can’t measure, and that you can’t measure everything. His models are an attempt to fill this gap.

“We’re hoping to provide information that will allow governments to make efficient and cost-effective decisions that protect people’s health,” he says.

Hakami and his collaborators are looking into the atmospheric dynamics of prescribed burns, for example. Intentionally setting small, controlled blazes can prevent larger fires from developing, but we don’t know if benefits outweigh risks from exposure to smoke in neighbouring areas. Better modelling can help address this question.

He’s also co-supervising a group of Carleton students who will be monitoring indoor air quality in several buildings on campus when smoke descends on Ottawa. This project could eventually help engineers design better ventilation systems.

A man points to a map on a computer monitor.
Photo by Ode Films

Hakami’s work also contributes to broader conversations about climate change solutions. “Health has always been a more potent driver of change,” he says, “than strictly environmental concerns.”

The Health Impacts of Exposure to Wildfire Smoke

Like Hakami, Carleton epidemiologist Paul Villeneuve, from the Department of Neuroscience and School of Mathematics and Statistics, has become increasingly focused on wildfire smoke.

Villeneuve is in the early stages of a five-year, Canadian Institutes of Health Research-funded project with Sarah Henderson from the BC Centre for Disease Control and others. They’re exploring how short-term exposure to wildfire smoke impacts hospitalization and death rates among people 65 and older, in particular those with chronic health conditions.

A professional headshot of a man wearing a grey shirt.
Carleton University epidemiologist Paul Villeneuve

By overlaying health data from Ontario and B.C. with spatial maps that provide daily measures of wildfire smoke, he’ll be able to identify postal codes where people went to the doctor or hospital, and why, as well as upticks in prescription drug use.

“Our research is looking specifically at wildfire smoke and for the first time will come up with risk estimates for those with underlying health conditions for this pollutant,” says Villeneuve.

These estimates will inform public messages that can help vulnerable Canadians manage their exposure — by doing outdoor activities at certain times of day, for instance, or by wearing a mask.

Villeneuve is also involved with research that’s investigating what exactly is in the fine particulate matter conveyed by wildfire smoke. We know the dangers of breathing in particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, “but we’re starting to look at what’s actually on these particles,” he says, “as opposed to just counting the particles.”

Carleton researcher discussing wildfire impacts with colleagues in a lab setting while studying wildfires and climate-related risks.
Photo by Ode Films

There’s growing recognition, Villeneuve says, that Canadian will be dealing with these risks more and more in the years ahead, and that there are both short- and long-term health concerns, from asthma to various cancers, that should be monitored.

“We need to know what the health risks and associated costs are,” he says.

“This will help us decide how much we should mitigate exposure to wildfire smoke and what the benefits of doing so are.”

–
More Health and Wellness | Follow Carleton Engineering on LinkedIn for Research Updates

Lead image by mrdoomits / iStock

Prescribing Innovation

Elizabeth Kane
-
0
Prescribing Innovation

Visiting a health-care clinic brings the strains on Canada’s medical system into sharp focus: crowded waiting rooms, busy physicians and nurses who have limited time for each patient.

While this has always been a stressful environment, a lack of family doctors, increased staffing shortages throughout the system and more complex health-care needs since the pandemic have made the challenge even more acute.

This perfect storm means that patients face frustratingly long waits for both routine and complex care while many health-care professionals battle workload fatigue.

To address this issue, Carleton University’s School of Nursing is offering the world’s first undergraduate nursing degree with RN Prescribing. Graduates will be able to prescribe medications from a provincially-regulated list in clinical and community settings outside of hospitals.

A woman wearing a dark shirt delivers remarks at a podium, with a large red backdrop behind her.
Carleton University School of Nursing director Danielle Manley

Preparing for the Future of Health Care

In 2023, Ontario changed the provincial Nursing Act to allow qualified nurses to assess patients and prescribe from a list of 30 medications and classifications, including those used to address common sexual health needs, travel vaccinations, assistance for quitting smoking and treating wounds.

Graduates of Carleton’s nursing school will help patients access faster care and improve clinic efficiency.

Danielle Manley, director of the School of Nursing, explains that Carleton’s launch of its nursing program in 2025 provided a unique opportunity to design a future-focused degree in its entirety – including the ability to introduce training on prescribing medication for all students.

“Carleton has taken an approach where we have woven these skills throughout our curriculum,” she says.

“We talk about legislation, the scope of practice and technicalities throughout the whole three years of the program. Every student will have this foundational knowledge and graduate with these extended competencies.”

Students are also being prepared to manage the potential addition of future medications.

“The program is not only training nurses for the current list of medications,” Manley says, “but also for when that list increases and as the scope expands.”

Two nurses reviewing patient notes in a hospital corridor.

New Tools for Nurse Training

Rapidly advancing technology is changing health care dramatically, and Carleton’s nursing program has embraced these changes, offering an optional concentration in AI and Data Science for students. This focus on technology extends to prescribing.

Nursing students traditionally learn by practicing skills in a clinical setting, but while there are already registered nurse prescribers working in Ontario today, there are not enough for students to follow in clinics and learn from.

“As in all medical programs, we have clinical placements where we go and practice these skills in a real setting,” says Manley.

“There isn’t the capacity to funnel that many students through a clinical setting, so we are leveraging simulation technology.”

Carleton’s program will utilize virtual and augmented reality systems and realistic medical manikins to provide students with the opportunity to practice these important skills.

“Now we can standardize and produce the quantity of training we need in the current state of the medical system.”

Doctor working at desk.
Photo by SARINYAPINNGAM / iStock

Increasing Equity for Underserved Populations and Remote Communities

Supporting mental health is another part of healing a health-care system under strain. Carleton’s School of Nursing offers an elective concentration in Neuroscience and Mental Health, preparing graduates for careers as psychotherapists.

While medications focused on managing mental health symptoms have not yet been added to the provincial list, Carleton’s nurses are ready for the potential inclusion of these medicines in the years to come. As registered nurse prescribers, they would be able to provide mental health assessments and prescriptions for patients in their own clinical psychotherapy practices.

“In our program, we emphasize leadership,” says Manley.

“Carleton University graduates will understand what opening an independent practice could look like.”

For rural and remote communities where a hospital may be many hours away, having nurses available to prescribe common medications in their own clinics or as part of an in-home visit could be a game changer for health equity and accessibility.

Nursing students practicing CPR and ventilation on a training mannequin.
Photo by Jacob Wackerhausen / iStock

Addressing the needs of underserved communities is at the core of Carleton’s nursing program; enabling all graduates to prescribe medications is a key aspect of delivering on this commitment.

“With a curriculum focused on future oriented clinical leadership, our graduates will be entering a healthcare workforce enabled to make system-level change and understand how impactful they can be in underserviced communities and regions.”

Beyond Words

Elizabeth Kane
-
0
Beyond Words

Bilingualism offers many cognitive and social advantages, including enhanced complex mental skills such as problem solving and improved multitasking. In today’s interconnected world, being able to communicate in multiple languages is increasingly valuable.

But for those who experience communication challenges due to neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions, such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and schizophrenia, traditional clinical advice has often discouraged caregivers from raising their children in bilingual environments.

A woman poses for a photo inside an office with her arms crossed.
Carleton University Cognitive Science researcher Olessia Jouravlev

Carleton University Cognitive Science researcher Olessia Jouravlev’s team is challenging this conventional thinking by exploring whether bilingualism may actually enhance communication among people with neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions.

When children with these conditions are steered away from a bilingual environment, Jouravlev explains, they may be missing out on the same advantages of bilingualism that are lauded for their neurotypical counterparts. In fact, bilingualism could offer benefits that help manage cognitive deficits associated with these conditions.

Strengthening the Spectrum of Communication Skills

Researchers in Jouravlev’s Linguistic Neurodiversity Lab are working with bilingual adults with ASD and schizophrenia in partnership with The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre. The team is evaluating study participants through a series of language tests while also tracking physiological and neural markers, including eye movements, pupil dilation, brain’s electrical activity and blood flow.

While the research is ongoing, early results indicate that bilingual individuals have improved understanding of the mental and emotional states of others.

Growing up in a bilingual environment can benefit one’s ability to interpret non-verbal communication.  When there is a gap in language proficiency with a native speaker, bilingual individuals often rely more heavily on eye contact, facial expressions and other non-verbal cues to fully understand what is being communicated.

Four mannequin heads wearing sensor equipped research caps used in research on bilingualism and neurodiversity to measure brain activity during language studies.
Four mannequin heads fitted with sensor equipped research caps used in studies on bilingualism and neurodiversity

“It requires eye contact and close observation,” Jouravlev says.

“This trains dynamic social skills and requires people to adjust their communication in the moment.”

Using multiple languages also teaches children to observe social cues when switching between different language contexts.

Language Management and Mental Multitasking

As someone who speaks three languages, Jouravlev has personal experience with the advantages of bilingualism —including the benefits for multitasking.

“When we know multiple languages, those languages are active in the mind at all times,” Jouravlev explains.

“Because managing multiple languages constantly trains the brain, it also translates to non-linguistic domains. If you ask me to do things where I need to switch my attention, it will be easier than it would be for someone who knows just one language.”

A university professor holds up a model of a brain while sitting in her office.
Photo by Brenna Mackay

This enhanced cognitive control may also provide benefits for symptom management.

“There have been a number of case studies in patients with schizophrenia where they would have symptoms, such as hallucinations, only when immersed in their native language,” says Jouravlev.

“When they are using their second language, they are trying so hard to comprehend what is being communicated that they have fewer mental resources for internally generated hallucinations.”

Emotional Connection through Language

There are also important emotional benefits for children of families whose language at home differs from that of the broader community.

“Traditionally, the advice has been that if you use two languages in your household, families should stop this and stick to the language of the community,” says Jouravlev.

Researcher reviewing brainwave data on a computer screen with a participant during a language and cognition study.
Jouravlev and Cognitive Science student La Volonte Ndimurukundo explore brain activity linking multilingualism and neurodiversity

This can create challenges for caregivers who cannot express themselves as fully in the community language as they can in their first language. As a result, their interactions with their children may include less emotional nuance or depth.

“This can deprive kids of an important emotional component of language, which they need for their growth,” she says.

Jouravlev hopes the full results of this research will give families and clinicians clearer, evidence-based guidance.

“My hope is that caregivers and clinicians will realize that knowledge of multiple languages is not a limitation for communication, it’s a potential benefit —one which we believe is likely to help individuals who are on the autism spectrum or individuals who have schizophrenia.”

Investigating Cold Cases: University Students Work to Solve Decades-Old Disappearance

Dan Rubinstein
-
0
Investigating Cold Cases: University Students Work to Solve Decades-Old Disappearance

In the summer of 1973, two teenagers vanished while hitchhiking to a concert in Upstate New York. More than five decades later, the disappearance of Bonnie Bickwit and her boyfriend Mitchel Weiser continues to baffle investigators, leaving family and friends aching for closure.

The percentage of cases solved by police varies across crime type and geography. In the United States, the “clearance” rate for homicides is around 50 per cent, while the corresponding figure for Canada is roughly 70 per cent with significant regional differences, such as a higher success rate in Toronto than Vancouver.

Investigations can go cold after a crime for many reasons, according to Carleton University psychology researcher Kirk Luther. A lack of evidence or eyewitness accounts. No CCTV technology and minimal forensics when the crime was committed. Small police detachments with limited resources. Fuzzy memories. Mistakes.

Carleton researcher Kirk Luther poses for a photo while sitting next to a window.
Carleton University psychology researcher Kirk Luther (photo by Brenna Mackay)

These challenges — and the dearth of academic brainpower focused on this problem — inspired Luther to create a course dedicated to helping police make progress on cold cases.

First offered in 2024-25, Luther and 20 students looked into the disappearance of Bonnie and Mitch using forensic science and psychology-informed investigative techniques. This year the class has also started to collaborate with a Canadian police organization on another case, although details can’t be disclosed at this point.

“We have all these incredibly smart and talented students who have so much experience and come from so many different backgrounds,” says Luther, the director of Carleton’s Psychological Research in Investigative Science and Methodology Lab.

“This is a way for us to provide fresh eyes and a new perspective.”

An old newspaper clipping of an article with the headline 'They went to a concert and disappeared.'
An article from The San Bernadino County Sun, published on April 12, 1974

Seeking Answers and Justice

Joe Fazzary, the District Attorney in Schuyler County, NY, was a kid when the Grateful Dead and Summer Jam drew 600,000 people to his hometown in 1973. He remembers hearing about the young couple who vanished, but when he became DA in 1988, his small office did not have the capacity to investigate.

“It would be a monumental undertaking, given the magnitude of the concert and the unavailability of witnesses,” says Fazzary.

“When Kirk told me his plan, I thought it was an amazing idea. I was seeking answers for the Bickwit and Weiser families. I wanted justice for those two kids. I believe Mitch and Bonnie were victims of a crime.”

Luther’s 20 students, a mix of fourth-year and graduate psychology students, pored through newspaper archives from Upstate New York. They interviewed people who knew Mitch and Bonnie but had never spoken with police before, including some from the summer camp where Bonnie worked before departing for the concert.

Three students posing for a group photo inside a classroom.
Carleton University students Roshni Sohail, Eva Huppe and Harper Chaisson (photo by Brenna Mackay)

The students mapped various routes the couple could have taken while hitchhiking. They put together detailed timelines and an evidence inventory. They explored various theories: Were Mitch and Bonnie murdered by a serial killer who was active in the area? Did they join a cult? Ultimately, although still working on the case this year, the information they gathered was put into a 76-page dossier for Fazzary and his colleagues.

“These students are so adept at using technology and social media — they bring skills that law enforcement might not have,” says Fazzary.

“I don’t know if the research done by this class will result in any resolution because it’s such a difficult case, but it shows the victims’ families that we’re trying everything, that their children are not forgotten.”

A map of hitchhiking route.
One of several routes the Mitch Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit could have taken while hitchhiking

Serving and Protecting

There’s a long history of university law students helping exonerate people who have been wrongfully convicted. Like his overarching research program, Luther’s cold case class is comparable, applying psychological techniques to help police serve and protect.

“You can see the passion of officers trying to provide justice for victims’ families,” he says.

“Our lab’s goal is doing relevant research that could potentially improve practices.”

Beyond cold cases, Luther is working to help police obtain more high-quality information from investigative interviews and to advance culturally sensitive interviewing practices. He’s also exploring how people react to and remember traumatic events, so police, suspects and victims can better navigate difficult situations.

Students and a professor discussing an old newspaper clipping displayed on a projector.
Photo by Brenna Mackay

Enhancing legal literacy is another interest, to protect adults and youth during police interrogations.

“People really struggle at comprehending information when they’re stressed,” says Luther.

“We’re trying to rework the way rights are communicated so there’s an uptick in comprehension, which will help ensure that detainees make informed decisions and that the investigation doesn’t fall through because of a technicality.

“We’re trying to help address problems for police and for people being questioned about crimes,” he adds. “To me, this is what academia is really about.”

–
Lead image of Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit by MitchelAndBonnie.com.

 

Creating Vibrant Public Space

Dan Rubinstein
-
0
Creating Vibrant Public Space

Over the past few decades, the prevalence of free, accessible public spaces has been declining in cities around the world. Neither home nor work, these gathering places, such as parks and libraries, bring people from different backgrounds together to socialize and feel a sense a community.

Factors contributing to this decline include the increasing cost and privatization of urban land, as well as the shift toward a more individualistic, fast-paced world with more digital interaction. When these places disappear, the social connections that hold cities together can weaken.

All of this is the backdrop to the latest design-build project from Carleton University’s Architecture Action Lab. With significant input from local community members, the lab has reimagined and rebuilt the Vanier Hub — a vibrant outdoor space in Ottawa’s east end that embodies everything public space should be.

Vibrant public spaces at Ottawa’s Vanier Hub, showing a redesigned outdoor stage and gathering area built through community-led architecture
The redesigned Vanier Hub creates a welcoming public gathering space in Ottawa (photo by Terence Ho)

Located just off Montreal Road, a busy thoroughfare in the heart of the diverse Vanier neighbourhood, the former parking lot is now a colourful, homey park with furniture and features that create living room, kitchen and backyard-like environments.

The hub, which opened last November after a year of consultation and eight months of construction by a predominantly volunteer workforce, is intended to be welcoming to everybody in a largely racialized, low-income part of the city with significant Indigenous, immigrant and Francophone populations.

At the same time, according to Architecture Action Lab director Menna Agha, the project is part of a broader effort to nudge a traditionally white, male and capitalistic discipline in a new direction.

“Our lab only serves communities that are struggling with housing, gentrification and food insecurity,” says Agha, an Architecture and African Studies researcher at Carleton.

“There’s often an overlap between these kinds of issues and people not feeling a sense of belonging. And how can you have community solidarity without a place to come together?”

Vibrant public spaces in Ottawa’s Vanier neighbourhood featuring a community member at the redesigned Vanier Hub outdoor gathering space.
Architecture Action Lab director Menna Agha (photo by Terence Ho)

Providing a Sense of Possibility

The first iteration of the Vanier Hub opened in 2021. A collection of shipping containers, picnic tables and a mural transformed a concrete rectangle into a venue for cultural and community events that collectively drew thousands of attendees.

A year later, Architecture Action Lab students began talking to neighbourhood residents about how the space could evolve.

The lab produced a dozen designs, received feedback from locals, refined their final plan and were awarded a provincial Trillium Grant to kickstart construction.

“We didn’t ‘save’ anybody,” says Agha. “We just materialized what the community asked us to do. We provided a sense of possibility.”

The new hub includes a nine-metre-long communal table, a kitchen complete with barbeques, a stage for events, playground equipment for children, a ping pong table and an oversized Vanier sign. It will be home to both casual gatherings and more formal programming, such as the annual Inuit Olympics — Vanier has one of the largest Inuit communities in Canada outside the North — and Iftar dinners during Ramadan.

“Architects usually build things and then walk away, but we’re going to be involved year-round,” says Agha. “We’ll be here to change lightbulbs, to fix and clean things, to help organize events. We’re grateful that we had an opportunity to test our hypothesis that architecture can be done differently.”

Vibrant public spaces taking shape at Ottawa’s Vanier Hub as volunteers build communal furniture through hands-on, community-led design.
Carleton architecture grad Sam Lane-Smith helps build communal features at the Vanier Hub (photo by Terence Ho)

Building Relationships in the Community

Beyond community impact, one of the goals of the Architecture Action Lab is to show students that they can cultivate careers outside the private sector.

Sally El Sayed, a doctoral architecture student with an undergraduate degree and a Master of Architecture from Carleton, served as the project manager for the Vanier Hub. She was on site most days, managing a rotating crew of volunteers. On some summer days, more than two dozen turned up, and around 150 people in total contributed.

A community member standing in front of the redesigned Vanier Hub outdoor gathering space.
Vanier Hub project manager and Carleton architecture PhD student Sally El Sayed (photo by Terence Ho)

Some of the volunteers were Vanier residents from other countries — for instance, carpenters who were between jobs. Local seniors also visited frequently, asking questions and checking out the progress.

“That’s the part of the project I’ve liked the most: having interactions and building relationships with the community,” says El Sayed.

“People are invested in their neighbourhood and saw me here constantly, so there’s mutual respect.

“It’s great to have an opportunity to use our architecture skills to do practical things, and this is different than working in an office and designing something but not seeing the end result. It’s amazing to see this project come to life.”

An outdoor structure and community gathering area under construction.
Photo by Terence Ho

The Future of Food

Dan Rubinstein
-
0
The Future of Food

About one in six people suffer from dysphagia, a medical term that means difficulty swallowing. Symptoms can include pain, gagging and an inability or reluctance to eat, and while the condition can develop at any age, it’s most common amongst older adults.

Dysphagia can lead to weight loss and other negative health outcomes resulting from inadequate nutrition, which is a concern for anybody with a diminished appetite, such as seniors or people who are receiving treatment for cancer.

This challenge is one of the reasons why a team of researchers at Carleton University, led by Food Science professor Farah Hosseinian, are using a 3D printer to explore a new frontier: high-tech food manufacturing.

A group of people standing together for a photo inside a laboratory.
Carleton University Food Science professor Farah Hosseinian (third from left) alongside her research team: Winifred Akoetey, Seun Davies and Minfang Luo (Photo by Terence Ho)

Their project involves combining layers of proteins, grains, fruits, vegetables and sugars, or various combinations thereof, to make food that’s more palatable and pleasing to people with dysphagia or other eating related ailments. Most of the work is taking place in Carleton’s Food Design Lab, a glassed-in space adjacent to what looks like a conventional kitchen in the university’s new Abilities Living Laboratory (ALL).

The goal of the 3D printed food research meshes with ALL’s overarching mission — to design, prototype and test innovations for people with disabilities that support full inclusion in public and cultural life. Eventually, volunteers (for instance, a group from a local retirement home) will be able to come to the lab and sample some of the team’s culinary creations.

“We’ll have the ability to experiment and create nutritious foods with different visual, textural, structural and olfactory attributes,” says Hosseinian.

“Food is something that’s important from the time you’re born until the end of your life. We all need to eat, and when we can’t, it has a significant impact on our quality of life.”

Experimenting with Ingredients and Texture

Hosseinian, a biochemist, began her career doing research on how to derive value-added products from agri-food waste. For instance, some of the “leftovers” from winemaking, such as phytochemicals — compounds found in plants — could be beneficial because of their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.

This led to a collaboration with an Ottawa-based food manufacturing company that produced frozen purées for hospitals across Canada. A common issue with purées is that when they’re heated, they can become too runny, which can cause choking.

A researcher creating 3D printed meals using a 3D printer.
Photo by Terence Ho

One solution, according to Hosseinian, is to experiment with ingredients and texture to create safe and nutritious alternatives.

“It’s important to develop modified foods that are suitable for populations that have trouble eating,” she says.

“We can work on the physical characteristics of various foods and add things like dietary fibre and probiotics.”

The 3D printer that will be set up in her lab this spring will be a food-grade machine. Instead of using ink, edible resins or pastes made from a mix of ingredients — powders combined with water and/or oil — are dispensed through the nozzle. Companies are already demonstrating 3D printed pizza and other foods at tech trade shows; taste tests are promising.

Carleton researchers will be using other advanced equipment in their lab, including a texture analyzer — basically, a probe that’s lowered into a substance — that can determine particle size and particle size distribution.

“We need to understand the physical and rheological characteristics of the foods that we make because this will affect their sensory qualities and mouthfeel,” says Hosseinian.

“Part of our lab may resemble a kitchen, but there’s a lot of physics, engineering and chemistry taking place beneath the surface.”

Researchers working on 3D printed food for astronauts.
Winifred Akoetey and Minfang Luo demonstrate the lab’s texture analyzer (Photo by Terence Ho)

3D Printed Meals for Astronauts

Beyond producing food for people who need help or encouragement to eat, this research has other applications. NASA and other space agencies are looking into 3D printing as a way to provide sustenance to astronauts, for example.

High school cafeterias could be equipped with 3D printers, suggests Hosseinian, serving a population that eats a lot but doesn’t necessarily make the healthiest choices.

Long-term care homes could also have 3D printers. A resident craving a veggie pizza could make a meal within minutes, at the touch of a button. Manufacturing baby food or pet food are also possibilities.

“What we’re really talking about is a future food system,” says Hosseinian, who predicts that some of these technologies could be in use within a couple years.

“Our goal is to make food that’s safe to eat, more appealing and more nutritious. Everybody should enjoy eating.”

–
More Health and Wellness
More Technology for Good
More Sustainability

123...7Page 1 of 7

1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON, K1S 5B6, Canada