Prof joins call for equitable access to fitness Professor Chad Sutherland helped to produce a report recommending ways to make access to sport, recreation, and fitness equitable for everyone. The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced challenges to all Canadians, but its impact has been greater on more vulnerable community members, says UWindsor kinesiology professor Chad Sutherland. He is part of a team that has produced a report recommending ways to make access to sport, recreation, and fitness equitable for everyone — especially given additional barriers the pandemic has presented. Sutherland, director of operations for the Centre for Human Performance and Health, was invited to the national project based on his 12 years of experience with physical activity programming for adults with autism spectrum disorder and an intellectual disability as well as other vulnerable groups. “I wanted to share how the pandemic has interrupted their ability to engage in many physical activity programs, resulting in negative impacts on both their…
Report details progress of health institute WE-Spark Health Institute has released its fourth quarter report highlighting key metrics from February to April 2021. Highlights include: added 225 new members, for a total of 677; hosted an inaugural WE-Spark After Dark networking event connecting people from across its four partner institutions interested in health care research; published two Ask the Experts articles by members: What Exactly is Data Analytics, and Why is Psychology Important in our Everyday Lives; launched its 2021 Igniting Discovery Grant Competition providing seed funding for early-stage, novel, and innovative health research and education projects; hosted two think tanks; and facilitated five academic appointments in the UWindsor Department of Biomedical Sciences. Read the report here. WE-Spark Health Institute is a research partnership between the University of Windsor, Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, St. Clair College, and Windsor Regional Hospital. All quarterly reports can be found on the institute’s website.…
Workshop to introduce concepts of knowledge translation Have you heard about knowledge translation but aren’t sure exactly what it is? Do you leave that section of your grant application until the end because you’re not sure where to start or how to plan? Then WE-SPARK Health Institute has the workshop for you. Its introductory “KT 101 Workshop,” via Microsoft Teams at noon Friday, May 28, is open to all levels and research backgrounds. “Knowledge translation is an important process of information exchange between researchers or experts in a field, and knowledge users,” says Adriana Baggio, the institute’s knowledge translation co-ordinator. “It’s about taking what we learn and making it available and accessible for use in practice, learning, planning, and policy-making. Simply put, it translates knowledge into real-world application.” The workshop will review the concepts of knowledge translation, building a KT toolkit, and how to start a KT plan. Participants will leave with a checklist to use as a reference for future…
Screening study to expand reach Jackie Fong leads staff member Elizabeth Fidalgo Da Silva through the MyCap app as part of a pilot project to screen campus volunteers for COVID-19. Researchers with the COVID Screening Platform study will expand their work to include up to 400 campus volunteers willing to be screened weekly for COVID-19. Starting May 31 for 10 weeks, participants from the faculties of science and human kinetics, and university employees will get their saliva tested weekly, with results sent via a cellphone app called MyCap. This is the second of the three-phase campus COVID screening program. Phase one tested 30 individuals working in the Faculty of Science’s Essex Centre of Research (CORe) building and wrapped up on April 30. Lead researcher and biomedical sciences professor Lisa Porter say phase one allowed the team to set up and optimize processes and gauge University enthusiasm for an active testing program starting with research labs already on campus. “We were encouraged by the goodwill…
Forum to consider health research proposals Professors Jill Urbanic and John Trant will propose potential research projects at an upcoming WE-Spark think tank event. Two UWindsor professors will present their ideas for potential research projects at an upcoming health-related forum. Engineering professor Jill Urbanic and chemistry professor John Trant will be among the featured speakers at the WE-Spark Health Institute Virtual Think Tank on June 4. Dr. Urbanic will talk about the use of artificial tissue, called anthropomorphic phantoms, in medical training. Dr. Trant will discuss antimicrobial agents and research into quorum sensing, bacteria’s ability to share information to adjust gene expression. A third speaker, Rasna Gupta from the Windsor Regional Hospital’s cancer program, will talk about building a local physician wellness program. The WE-Spark Health Institute is a research partnership involving the University of Windsor, Windsor Regional Hospital, Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, and St. Clair College. “Our Think…
Professor dedicated to diversifying faculty A young Kristoffer Romero enjoys the 1991 Canadian National Exhibition in Toronto. Psychology professor Kristoffer Romero considers himself part of the changing face of academia. A Filipino-Canadian, he hopes that over time, more and more students will see themselves reflected in the faculty of the University of Windsor. “My parents immigrated to Canada in the early ’80s, first landing in B.C. and eventually settling in Kitchener-Waterloo,” he recalls. “As they were part of an earlier wave of Filipino newcomers, I didn’t know many other Filipinos growing up.” When he moved to Toronto to attend university, he found a more diverse population, but observed a discrepancy. “Despite the diversity I saw in the city and the student body, the faculty were not nearly as diverse, and I only had one Asian professor during all of undergrad,” says Dr. Romero. “It was a situation I wanted to remedy.” When he moved to Windsor in 2019, he did not expect much diversity in the faculty,…
Researcher to study COVID variants surfacing in Windsor-Essex Chemistry professor Kenneth Ng will study the proteins that manage how coronaviruses replicate and infect, to prepare to battle emerging variants. A new health research grant will allow a UWindsor professor to closely study the proteins that manage how coronaviruses replicate and infect, to help prepare for the development of new vaccines and drugs to battle emerging COVID variants. Kenneth Ng, a chemistry and biochemistry professor, received a $50,000 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) COVID variant grant, supplementing a previous COVID-19 therapeutics grant awarded to Dr. Ng and his research partner, Chang-Chun Ling of the University of Calgary. It will allow the team to work closely with the wastewater surveillance and saliva testing research projects led by UWindsor researchers Mike McKay, Lisa Porter, and Yufeng Tong. There are now several vaccines available for COVID-19, but there are concerns that they will be less effective against some of the coronavirus variants…
Capstone project helps visually impaired individuals see with sound Bryce McGregor, a graduating student from the Biomedical Engineering Technology program, demostrates his sensor device. Graduating Biomedical Engineering Technology students have created a device which detects objects in the immediate walking path of a visually impaired person. The customizable and wearable harness consists of a clip-on ultrasonic sensor which sounds an alert when the person wearing it is approaching a mass. It was designed to take the place of a white cane or walking stick. Instructor Jim Durocher said for their year-end capstone projects, the students were told to consider a disease or disability and improve the quality of their life. “These are more ambitious and higher risk projects. With ambitious projects you’ll often encounter many roadblocks.” But this is the nature of the course said Durocher. “How are you able to adapt around the roadblocks and course correct when something detrimental occurs? To their credit these students have done really well with…
Students develop app to improve health A pair of St. Clair College students have created an app to assist people in taking their medication. The application, named Medify, allows users to add their medications with the date and time they are to be taken in a calendar format. The app also features an option for caregivers to view what medications the user is taking and what medications have been taken on any given day. It was created by Abel Anderson and Hasan Muslemani, two students in the mobile application development program at St. Clair College. Anderson said the idea grew out of addressing the needs of a registered pharmacist, Jody Lecuyer, early last year. “During that time, we talked with her and got a general idea of the project she wanted. Later on, at the beginning of the past semester, we met with her again and started making plans for the project itself,” said Anderson. This process involved discussing features that would be provided on the app between himself and partner Muslemani, drawing prototypes to…
