Master Projects & Major Papers

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Abbott Elementary’s principal Ava Coleman - a contrast for Black female administrators
(2022-11-01) Elango, Gillian; Petrarca, Diana
Using Mikos’ (2014) film analysis technique, the role of Ava Coleman in the mockumentary sitcom Abbott Elementary is dissected and contrasted to the researched experiences of Black women principals. The research on Black Female administrators provides a starting point of contrast in examining stereotypes and leadership styles. Further, comparisons are also reviewed based on findings of media portrayals of Black women and school principals. All thirteen 23-minute episodes of the series' first season provide the data source for research. Using Hill Collins's (2000) Black Feminist Theory framework, implications regarding the ability of the role to offer a differing narrative of what it means to be a Black woman in educational leadership are realized.
Academic integrity policy and support provisions: are Ontario colleges setting international and multilingual learners up for success?
(2022-07-01) Gibson, Steacy D.; Eamer, Allyson
With the meteoric rise of international students on college campuses across Ontario, institutions must be committed to provide support and continued discourse around multiple educational and cultural perspectives. One area of concern that has been overlooked in the literature is how international students are supported in understanding academic integrity from a western perspective. Through a mixed-methods approach, an investigation of the academic integrity policies and available support was conducted on each of Ontario’s 24 publicly funded colleges. Additionally, relationships between regional international enrolment and academic integrity support were analyzed. Findings suggest that most colleges in Ontario do not meet the exemplary elements of academic integrity policy and fail to support their international students to access and understand academic integrity policy. It is suggested that colleges invoke a more holistic approach to academic integrity, involving the voices of the international community to encourage a more anti-deficit and equitable understanding of academic integrity from a western perspective.
Analysis of the Integration of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in PowerPoint Artifacts in an Ontario College Trades Course
(2020-12-01) Christopher, Deandra; Stokes, Joe; Barber, Wendy
Through a quantitative case study analysis of learning artifacts used in a skilled trades course at an Ontario community college, this research project examined PowerPoint presentation artifacts designed by a college instructor and assessed how they aligned with principles of UDL and the tenets of UDL curriculum design. Specifically, the artifacts were examined using the overarching three principles of the Center for Applied Special Technology’s UDL framework: (a) multiple means of representation (b) multiple means of action & expression and (c) multiple means of engagement, and within each of these then examined the four tenets of curriculum design (i) goals (ii) methods (iii) materials (iv) assessments.
Assessing the behaviour of solid particulates in the flow of molten salt reactor coolant circuits
(2023-04-01) Arthurs, Cole William; Piro, Markus
This work investigated solid particulate behaviour in molten salt nuclear reactors. Solid particulates are expected to form from fission products reacting with fuel components, creating compounds with melting temperatures above the reactor operational temperature. These particulates may present operational risks including flow obstruction and corrosion. A sensitivity analysis was performed by simulating flow of molten salt within a reactor containing solid particulates via Computational Fluid Dynamics, where three parameters of the particulate were varied: diameter, density, and initial concentration. A case was simulated where values for these properties were selected based on a review of related literature. Subsequently, two more simulations were performed for each parameter using high and low values within the expected ranges, modifying only one parameter at a time. Results indicate that particle diameter has low impact on fluid dynamics of the reactor, but particulate density and concentration resulted in increased localized accumulation and cyclical movement of the particulate at the reactor outer edges.
The challenges and benefits of assistive technology and educational programs for educators, caregivers, and youth with multiple exceptionalities/special needs
(2023-08-23) Ivan, Paula M.; Hunter, William J.
Assistive technology (AT) is a process that provides opportunities for youth with multiple exceptionalities/special needs to learn, grow, and discover meaningful avenues in order to navigate through an evolving digital world. A growing body of research literature suggests that when assistive technology is introduced into the educational curriculum by teachers, included in the educational system by stakeholders, and made accessible in the learning community; it has the potential to enhance digital literacy, language, and numeracy skills for youth with multiple exceptionalities/special needs. Assistive technology also has the potential to augment cognitive development, language development, social development, and physical development, while improving the overall well-being of youth with multiple exceptionalities/special needs. This systematic literature review is qualitative by nature and seeks to explore the broad question, “what are the challenges and benefits of assistive technology and educational programs for educators and families of youth with multiple exceptionalities/special needs in the educational system?”
Co-designing instruction in virtual learning environments using AI
(2023-12-01) Ganesh, Aishwarya; Hunter, William
The literature was explored to determine how artificial intelligence (AI) systems and algorithms are currently being used in the co-design of learning within virtual learning environments. Through the analysis of literature, the study aims to retrieve multiple methods of AI assistance to ease or uplift the educator’s role in online learning design. The study determined a variety of themes that determine methods of AI use in online instruction, such as prediction, providing feedback, adaptive learning, and providing visualization of student data on learning management systems (LMS). The study also determined the importance of a repository of various student data input in AI algorithms, and the collaboration of educators and experts in the process of using AI systems. The key implications suggest the importance of bridging feedback immediacy and formative approaches to improving student performance in online environments. Furthermore, the study also determines the changing roles of stakeholders in the education process. Finally, it also suggests the potential to create a multifaceted AI system and an effective LMS that supports such features.
Collision detection in smart-cities by using co-simulation
(2022-11-01) Karre, Anukruthi; Azim, Akramul
Road traffic has become prominent in everyday living, impacting or disrupting services to people and daily routines. With the rise in automobile manufacturing and the frequency of vehicle crashes, human catastrophes, like fatalities, accidents, impairments, and destruction of property, are surging yearly. Vehicle collision detection has recently gained prominence in decreasing manually operated and autonomous vehicle fatalities. The concept of independent and self-driving cars relies on accurate object recognition, including pedestrians, vehicles, buildings, and other moving objects. Various object-detecting approaches have been proposed to help autonomous vehicles (AVs) achieve consistent, safe driving. Object prediction and detection have noticed numerous algorithmic changes that have improved speed and accuracy. In this study, I used a traffic dataset produced by a CARLA simulator to anticipate collisions using the Yolov7 model. I generated the dataset from a CARLA simulation bench in video sequences, manually annotated the frames, and used the deep learning algorithm Yolov7 to train them. The model predicts the collision a few seconds before it occurs in real-time. I implemented this framework to increase the safety of driving in self-driving vehicles.
Comparative economic analysis of conventional and plug-in battery electric vehicles in Canada
(2022-12-01) Muaz ur Rehman, Muhammad; Ibrahim, Walid Morsi
Conventional vehicles typically use gasoline for their internal combustion engines (ICEs). On the other hand, plug-in battery electric vehicles (PBEVs) use electricity to charge their batteries, so they do not need gasoline. With the soaring gasoline prices in Canada and around the world, the interest in electric vehicles from the public and the government has increased. However, given the wide range in prices of PBEVs, the high maintenance cost of conventional vehicles and the volatility in gasoline prices, there is a need for a comparative economic analysis to address the following two main questions: (1) What should be the minimum ownership period of a PBEV to be economical than a conventional vehicle? (2) At what gasoline prices do the PBEVs become more economical than conventional vehicles? The work in this project addresses these questions to assist customers in making the correct decision when they intend to purchase a new vehicle. The results have shown that the longer the ownership period is, the PBEVs become more economical compared to conventional vehicles. The work in this report has shown that the total ownership cost savings may reach $88,482 over 15 years.
Conceptual videos in mathematics: theory to practice
(2023-03-01) Allen, Rachel K.; LeSage, Ann
This project begins by providing an overview of the research on the purpose and criteria for creating quality educational videos and the development of a conceptual understanding of proportional reasoning. The paper then shifts from theory to practice, illustrating how I used research to create a four-part video series titled Is it Proportional? Designed for middle school students, the videos demonstrate identifying and solving proportional and non-proportional situations. The videos are analysed through the lens of technological design, content and pedagogical choices, focusing on the practical application of theory. The issues and successes of putting research into practice are critiqued, finding potential for conceptual videos in the middle school classroom, with a need for content and pedagogical understanding and acknowledgement of barriers such as time and access to technology.
A contextual approach to digital citizenship, digital literacy, and student voice
(2019-09-01) Casa-Todd, Jennifer; Kay, Robin; Hughes, Janette
Reluctance to embrace the use of social media in the K-12 classroom means there is limited research on the extent to which a guided approach to using social media might support students in an educational context. This narrative inquiry study focuses on the Ontario Educational Student Chat (ONedSschat) to determine the extent to which students who were part of the organizing team developed proficiency with digital citizenship and digital literacies, as well as student voice and agency, in order to demonstrate digital leadership skills. Data examined includes student tweets, archived webinars, interviews with two adult mentors and one student, podcasts and webinars. With few exceptions, students on the ONedSschat team exhibited a high degree of digital citizenship, used tools and platforms with greater fluency, had full agency over the project, and demonstrated digital leadership as a result of teacher mentorship. The greatest gains in terms of digital citizenship, literacies, and student voice were made by younger students.
Critical digital literacies used by adolescents and young adults with mental health diagnoses while consuming TikTok: a scoping review
(2024-07-01) Slongo, Lea; Morrison, Laura; Hughes, Janette
Teens and young adults with mental health diagnoses utilize social media for information related to their diagnoses and experiences. The design and operationalization of social media platforms can be both helpful and detrimental to this population. TikTok requires that adolescents and young adults have and utilize digital literacy skills to navigate content. This scoping review is interested in exploring how teens and young adults utilize critical digital literacy skills when navigating mental health information on TikTok. As this is an emerging technology and area of study, a large gap in the literature was identified as an opportunity for future research.
A critical discussion of the impact of internationalization on Ontario colleges
(2019-04-01) McGregor, Adam; Hunter, Bill
Internationalization of Ontario colleges is a strategic mandate dictated from both the federal and provincial governments to address declining domestic enrollment, labour market shortages, and the evolving needs of 21st century post-secondary students. The growth in numbers of international students in Ontario colleges has been particularly rapid over the past five years, and existing literature on internationalization and Ontario colleges was limited. While there are existing literature reviews consolidating literature on internationalization and higher education, none are focused on Canadian higher education, let alone Ontario colleges. Inclusion criteria were developed to prioritize literature that was most pertinent to the policy environment Ontario colleges operate in while also including work from countries with cultural similarities to Ontario. The results of this wide-ranging analysis of internationalization in the Ontario College system indicate a probable need for additional research, funding, training, and policy changes to ensure a sustainable future.
Dance and vlogs: creating pathways to STEM identity for marginalized girls
(2024-03-01) Nathan, Amy; Ruttenberg-Rozen, Robyn
Girls tend to start losing interest and confidence in their STEM talents in their adolescence and start dissociating themselves away from STEM. Research shows that alternative learning practices have been useful and been able to increase STEM exploration, engagement and support STEM learning. In this paper, I explore the impact of STEM learning from two alternative practices: dance and video logging to determine if there is a connection to STEM identity development of marginalized girls.
Data analysis in electric power system embedded with solar PVs
(2016) Alzaid, Mohammed; Ibrahim, Walid Morsi
Conventional source of energy are overly dependent on fossil fuel which tend to face several challenges such as the depleting of fossil fuel, environmental threat and human health. To deal with such challenges, solar PV system has been proposed to be embedded in the distribution system. Weather conditions plays a major role on affecting the power output of renewable energy sources, thus several power quality issues such as voltage variations are expected. Since the problem is of a stochastic nature, a probabilistic approach using Monte Carlo simulation techniques is adopted in this work. This project investigates the effect of PVs on residential house voltage and transformer power and Loss of Life through integrating rooftop solar PVs into the grid in such a way that the variations in the supply voltage caused by the solar irradiance and temperature remain within the acceptable limits set by IEEE Standards. In this respect, the analysis presented in this work also considers different scenarios including different penetrations of rooftop solar PVs (e.g., 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 kW), and the Monte Carlo algorithm is used to compute the impact of irradiance and temperature on the node voltages and transformer’s power. The results of these scenarios reveal that with different PV penetrations, the node voltages of the houses supplied from 25 kVA transformers may experience more impacts compared to those houses supplied from 50 kVA transformers.
Defining inclusive education in India through the perspectives of educators
(2017) Srikantha, Dhurka Janani; Robertson, Lorayne
This project investigates how policies and teaching practices in India affect educators’ definitions of inclusive education. Eight educators from private schools in India participated in open, semi-structured interviews to examine their understandings of equity and inclusion policies, the practices that facilitate inclusive education, the barriers that influence effective practices, and reflections on professional development. The teachers’ experiences and perspectives, through interviews, revealed their practices of inclusive education. The research analysis employs two theoretical frameworks: UNESCO’s Dakar Framework for Action; and Banks’ (1993) five dimensions of inclusive education. The findings indicate that the educators articulate early stages of the implementation of inclusive education in India. They understand the need to address existing prejudices, to differentiate learning, and to offer student-centered learning. The findings highlight that an empowering environment needs to be built to address stereotypes that exist within the school community and the society. Additionally, there is a need for community among schools of diverse backgrounds so that educators can continue to participate in professional development through mentorship and reflection.
Design and development of a novel anthropomorphic finger with pneumatic tactile sensing
(2020-04-01) Levins, Matthew D.; Lang, Haoxiang
The human hand is a tool that we rely on to conduct a vast variety of tasks, from cracking eggs to lifting boxes. Meanwhile, in an industrial setting, different tools are needed to complete specific tasks. Picking up a box may require parallel grippers, while grabbing an egg may need suction cups. Having one tool to accomplish both jobs saves time and money for tooling changes when a new product is manufactured. Hence, the need for anthropomorphic (human-like) grippers has risen over time. This work outlines the creation of an anthropomorphic finger and pneumatic tactile sensor. This underactuated and compliant finger design is optimal for an industrial or collaborative environment, while the pneumatic sensor is proven to be sensitive and accurate for tactile feedback of grasped objects. This feedback consists of force measurement and slip detection, which is required for efficient object manipulation.
Design and development of an interactive autonomous monitoring and surveillance drone
(2020-04-01) Li, Yunze; Lang, Haoxiang
This thesis describes the design and development of the novel autonomous UAV that has powerful GPU unit and potential sensing capability. It can run ROS (Robot Operating System) and compatible with packages developed under ROS. With the waterproof enclosure, it can land on the surface of water to do measurement of water parameters. Meanwhile, a human machine interaction mechanism using gesture recognition is developed and implemented for the developed drone to understand human commands. A novel way of image processing using depth information is developed for distance measurement. Meanwhile, a standard calibration method is applied and a vision-based object identification is developed and implemented in the on-board computer. It mainly achieves the function of licence plate identification and recognition. It includes a deep natural network and an OCR modular to achieve the identification, segmentation and recognition. The results showed the achievement of 95% success rate.
Design and implementation of a component-based distributed system for text mining in social networks
(2016) Huang, Yu; Mahmoud, Qusay H.
This report presents the design and implementation of a component-based distributed system for text mining in social networks. The system consists of three main types of components, data collection, data processing and data visualization. Three possible frameworks explore simple linear architecture, message feedback architecture, Kafka centric architecture and provide implementations of them. The final system adopts Kafka-centric architecture in which all components are connected through Kafka brokers. In terms of functionality, data collection components are responsible for collecting data from Twitter and producing messages to Kafka brokers. Data processing components contain a series of basic text mining topologies. Based on JavaScript libraries, data visualization is presented on web pages and allows users to interact with graphs and charts. In order to improve the scalability and performance of text mining, the project selects Apache Storm framework to implement data processing components. In this report, we evaluate the availability of Kafka and Storm, the rates of data collection components and the performance of data processing components. The experimental results demonstrate our system is available and scalable, and the component-based structure of this system enables it to be extended easily.
Design, performance, and economic evaluation of grid-connected renewable power generation system for Iqaluit community
(2022-08-01) Shah, Muhammad Babar; Ibrahim, Walid Morsi
The high demand for clean and green energy is due to the rise in global temperature as the climate is affected using fossil fuel for energy generation in the arctic region. Nunavut is rich in renewable resources like wind and solar, but almost 100% of their energy demand is met by diesel generators. Considering the soaring diesel prices, a hybrid wind power plant is proposed in this study and further compared to a similar size hybrid solar PV power plant. The hybrid wind power plant is the successor with lowest unit rate of 37.7₵/kWh and a payback period of 9.5 years.
Designing a framework for an online collaborative grant writing course in international development: a review of the literature and grant writing resources
(2022-08-01) Rodrigues, Beverley D.; Hunter, Bill; King, Alyson
The purpose of this study was to review the literature and to develop a comprehensive framework for designing an online collaborative grant writing course for professionals in international development. A systematic approach was used to search for peer-reviewed journal articles between 2012 and 2022, and 30 articles met the full inclusion criteria and were selected for review. The articles were reviewed and synthesized. Next, a framework for developing an online collaborative course was proposed. Major themes identified were community in online writing and learning, learning theories in online collaborative writing, culture in online collaborative writing, instructional design in online collaborative writing, and integrating digital tools. The findings of this study suggest a four-dimensional approach to developing an online collaborative grant writing course that includes cognitive, instructional design, and social and technological considerations.

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