Undergraduate students in University College programs including health studies, cognitive science, Canadian studies and UC One, celebrated their research projects from the year at the college’s first undergraduate research poster session.
“We want students to talk to each other and the faculty,” said University College vice-president John Marshall. “We all want to learn about each other’s research and the practical experiences in the city that students have had in their courses.”
Students in every year of their degrees set up vibrant posters on their chosen topics.
“Machine consciousness is fresh and interesting,” said fourth-year cognitive science major Klejda Nuro. ”To think that one day we could have a robot that has intelligence like us is pretty cool.”First-year students Ying Woei Ooi, David Manaster and Ruby Chen completed their project on gentrification in Toronto. In addition to showing their research in the poster, they set up a Lego-built neighbourhood, encouraging passersby to either add a piece to a building, add a new building or take something away.First-year students Kristin Rochon, Hebah Masood and Abbey Jackson explored different perspectives on tower complexes in Toronto, inspired by their UC One Citizenship course.First-year students Leighes Persaud, Ivanna Irawan and Marienka Bishop-Kovac wanted to express why transit needs to improve in Toronto. “Our city is divided because of class differences and gentrification,” said Bishop-Kovac. “People are being displaced to the outskirts and affected by not enough accessible transit. The resources aren’t there.”First-year students Chang Cao, Tua Hytönen and Kirsten McAuliffe invoked the Buddies in Bad Times theatre’s definition of queer theatre — not just LGBTQ theatre, but theatre that shocks and provokes viewers with a different view — to survey other Toronto theatres about how queer they were. “We decided to say these might not be what you consider queer, but in the theatre community, this is what’s considered queer. Even though they’re different, they’re all within the same community.”Paulina Salira, Alice Stanton-Hagan and Myra Wein created a database of historical images of Toronto’s Kensington Market for the fourth-year course Active Citizenship in the Canadian Studies program. They searched through different archives to compile images that would be useful for researchers interested in the history of Toronto’s iconic Kensington neighbourhood and shared it with Master of Museum Studies students at U of T.
