Applied Research

The City of Oshawa became a “Bee City” in 2018. Through this designation, the City committed to pollinator protection, increasing pollinator habitats on private and public lands, educating residents on actions to help pollinators in the community, and recognizing and celebrating pollinator initiatives in the community.

In early 2020, the City issued a Call for Interest for collaboration related to the Bee City commitment and posed these specific challenge questions:

• How 

  can the City establish an urban beekeeping program that ensures the health and wellbeing of our community and pollinators?

• Can urban beekeeping be done in a way that does not have an impact on native pollinators?

•  How might the City continue to support, educate and celebrate pollinator populations and health?

An interdisciplinary Durham College team – consisting of School of Science & Engineering Technology faculty members; Architectural Technology and Environmental Technology students; as well as members from FastStartDC, the college’s extra-curricular entrepreneurship program – collaborated to investigate the potential for and impacts of introducing an urban beekeeping program in Oshawa. This included developing an awareness campaign educating residents around the importance of pollinators and celebrating pollinator initiatives in Oshawa. The project consisted of three components:

1. Through a City Idea Lab course in the winter semester, students worked in groups to research and investigate how the City could establish an urban beekeeping program.  Students presented potential advantages and challenges related to establishing an urban beekeeping program, and considerations with regard to zoning and other regulations.

2. Student researchers examined the impacts of urban beekeeping on native pollinators. A literature review was completed to review impact studies of urban apiculture on the population of wild pollinators and their ecosystem specifically examining risks to native pollinators, benefits of urban bee conservation and mitigation measures.
3. FastStartDC member business 3eehive and a student project assistant supported the City in developing a social media marketing campaign that will help to advance the City’s goals of advancing its Bee City designation. The educational campaign ran between April and June 2021 and celebrated pollinator initiatives, encouraging residents to sign the Pollinator Pledge. In addition, this collaboration saw the addition of an educational video about pollinators as part of the City’s virtual Peony Festival celebrations.

The City Idea Lab assignments, research and literature review portions of the project will help guide policy in the City with respect to urban beekeeping.  

The marketing campaign helped raise awareness about pollinator issues locally and provided public education to Oshawa residents on what they can do to support and sustain native pollinators. The social media campaign included a total of 30 posts with a combined reach of 17,000 with 1100 total likes, 133 shares and 58 comments. Students distributed 85 seed packets to local residents and were able to increase the City’s pollinator pledges by 28 residents. Their creation of a Peony Festival video for the celebration resulted in 68 online views.

Additionally, the engagement initiatives helped the City advance its Bee City designation goals and build support for future City initiatives supporting pollinators.

“The experience from the very start has been incredible. It is a joy to collaborate with such talented, passionate, and motivated people. The work that we are doing does not feel like work because of the environment that has been created. I am excited to watch this project come to fruition, and I am honoured and grateful to be a part of this experience.”- Cullen Smith, Student Researcher, Durham College

“I am grateful to have worked on a project of this nature – especially because it is such an important environmental issue. Having reviewed many articles during my research, I have learned a lot about what we can do as citizens to help encourage conservation. I've already begun to implement the tips I have learned to help protect pollinators.” - Shane Kenyon, Student Researcher, Durham College

“Thanks to the City of Oshawa, Durham College, and FastStartDC joining forces, we were able to tackle an issue from a variety of perspectives and develop creative solutions that not only positively impact the goals of the City, but provide for unique experiential learning opportunities for our students. It is experiences like these that set our students apart upon graduation.” – Crystal Pollard, Manager, Entrepreneurship Services, Durham College

“It has been exciting to work on this project. We are very hopeful that our work will have a positive impact on the City and its residents.” - Dimitri Stathopoulos, Faculty, School of Science & Engineering Technology, Durham College

As the impact of this pandemic is anticipated to have sustained and long-reaching effects on the local economy, there is the opportunity to use openly available data sets that can inform policy and decision-making related to economic recovery within the City of Oshawa.

“Having a practical project like collecting open data for the City has helped me to understand many of the challenges in data science. I'm looking forward to shaping my research to help the City and their needs in data science.” - Limin Ma, Ontario Tech University graduate student

“Being a senior graduate student, I am grateful to participate in the TeachingCity project with Dr. Pu. It gives me a chance to utilize my Ontario Tech training and contribute to the City's cause. Furthermore, I am very motivated to do a good job and use the final product as a centrepiece for my job search portfolio in data science and web technologies.” - Michael Valdron, Ontario Tech University graduate student

“We believe that a mature and efficient data analytics pipeline will enable the City to gain insights into the economic, demographic and other key metrics of the City and its residents. Through my research group, I am motivated to contribute to the City’s economic development and planning by providing data intelligence based on various open data repositories on the economic impact of COVID-19 on Oshawa and related businesses that will translate into new programs and policies.”– Dr. Ken Pu, Faculty of Science, Ontario Tech University

The City of Oshawa and the Oshawa Senior Community Centres 55+ (OSCC55+) are actively working to implement the Oshawa Age-Friendly Strategy. Fundamental to this strategy is to effectively address the needs of older adults. As residents age and cognitive abilities decline, often these members of the community become isolated and decreasingly engaged in their communities. In 2020, as a result of public-health measures taken in response to the pandemic, this situation was exasperated. The OSCC55+ moved all of their programming directly aimed at older adults online. In addition, City customer-service staff often interacted with members of the community with cognitive impairments regularly, and many interactions were shifted to virtual means (e.g. online chat, phone inquiries) during the pandemic. It is unknown how effective the City’s and the OSCC55+’s virtual efforts are in engaging and addressing the needs of older adults with dementia and other cognitive impairments and in reducing the negative consequences of social isolation.

A research team at Ontario Tech University has launched this project, which is expected to be completed in 2022. The primary goal of the project is to evaluate the effectiveness of OSCC55+’s virtual and online programs in addressing the needs for social connection and interaction for older adults with dementia and their caregivers during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, the project will also evaluate the effectiveness of online or virtual interactions between the City’s customer-service staff and this population. 

Following the evaluation, the research team will identify gaps and provide recommendations to both the OSCC55+ and City on how they can better engage, communicate and deliver services and programs to older adults with cognitive impairments. 

Project insights will have an impact on the improved use of digital technology, as well as building the capacity of the volunteer workforce and community partnerships to support social connectedness of older adults with cognitive impairment in Oshawa. 

“I am delighted to be a part of this wonderful research project. It allows me to work closely with OSCC55+ members and Oshawa City staff and learn from their experiences. I am looking forward to the next steps of the project.”- Rabia Akhter, Ontario Tech University graduate student

“I am excited to work with OSCC55+ members and Oshawa City staff. It not only helps me to expand my expertise but also to contribute to the betterment of society.”- Farzana Rahman, Ontario Tech University graduate student

“I am very pleased for having the opportunity to work with TeachingCity Oshawa to establish meaningful partnerships and collaborations with the diverse groups of stakeholders in Oshawa. These partnerships allow me to utilize my research expertise in gerontology, and to offer my insights into the implementation of community-based projects focusing on the needs of older adults with cognitive impairment, with the goal of contributing to the development of an age-friendly city in Oshawa.” - Dr. Winnie Sun, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ontario Tech University

A.U.G. Signals Ltd. (AUG) and the Southern Ontario Centre for Atmospheric Aerosol Research (SOCAAR) at the University of Toronto, along with North Line Canada Ltd (North Line), worked with the City of Oshawa to assess the impact of traffic on air quality in the City’s downtown core.

SOCAAR and AUG developed a compact air pollutant monitoring technology called AirSENCE and four of these units were installed around a city block in downtown Oshawa. Co-located with these devices were four North Line FOX radar systems to quantify passing vehicles and characterize them based on length. The project was conducted from mid-August 2019 to late July 2020.

The AirSENCE sensors measured air pollutants associated with vehicle emissions including carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO₂), nitric oxide (NO), and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) and were measured against vehicular traffic volume. In general, the study substantiated higher rates of these emissions during typical rush hour periods. 

Since the study occurred during the public health restrictions due to COVID-19 in 2020, the placement of AirSENCE sensors alongside traffic counters provided an unprecedented opportunity to assess the impacts of changes in traffic volume on air quality in the downtown Oshawa core. 

Starting in mid-March 2020, the four AirSENCE devices detected significant decreases in average concentrations of air pollutants associated with vehicle emissions. This observation concurred with the improved air quality reported around the world and serves as a powerful illustration of the strong relationship between vehicle traffic and air pollutant levels in urban areas.

The study also captured a slight increase in pollutants during a period of road construction along King Street in June 2020. This demonstrates that while vehicular traffic is a major contributor to urban air pollution, its sources are in fact diverse. 

This study demonstrates the valuable information that can be collected from localized, real-time air quality sensors. Further, the valuable information can aid in decision-making for projects that involve public health considerations such as traffic mitigation, heavy construction, and urban renewal efforts.

The researchers are now exploring the introduction of air quality monitoring data into a technical course curriculum, either as course material, a practical/lab exercise, or the topic of a capstone design project.

“This project provided a good example of the potential benefits of directly engaging communities in air quality research.” – Dr. Greg Evans, Faculty of Chemical Engineering & Applied Chemistry, University of Toronto

Firefighters undertake significant and ongoing training to ensure their readiness to respond to emergencies. The cost of training in real-life fire scenarios is extremely high requiring substantial resources and poses great personal risk to individuals. Many firefighters who are unable to train in real-life scenarios due to the uncontrollable conditions suffer from a variety of natural but adverse reactions when they are exposed to the real situation.

A research team, under the supervision of Dr. Michael Williams-Bell, is undertaking the introduction of a highly innovative project using virtual reality to simulate uncontrolled fire scenarios and improve training for firefighters using immersive lifelike, experiential learning.

The project is currently in its beginning stages and initial data collection is ongoing. The anticipated results are to develop a virtual reality training simulation of an uncontrolled environment (i.e. building collapse) that can improve the resiliency of firefighters so that the mastering of the required skills and abilities are transferable to real-world scenarios.

The main objectives of this project include determining the specific scenarios encountered by firefighters under uncontrollable conditions and integrating the virtual reality simulation hardware with wearable technologies to measure physiological responses for real-time data monitoring and analytics, as a method to assess resiliency during the virtual reality simulation.

This project has evolved since the initial idea as a result of several grants, including a federal Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), College and Community Social Innovation Fund (CCSIF) grant and a Mitacs Accelerate grant.

Through this partnership, Oshawa Fire Services will gain access to a state-of-the-art training simulation that can complement the real-life training scenarios that are currently conducted as part of ongoing training in the fire service.

Thanks to the technology being used, it is anticipated that firefighters training in an immersive environment will be better equipped in the field as they learn to manage the stressors in real-life, finding ways to optimize performance and well-being, thus enabling them to perform better on the job. Ultimately, this means saved lives, a reduced number of injuries, and less incidences of Post-Traumatic Stress Injuries.

Structural firefighting is a dangerous profession. At times, firefighters inside unknown structures can become disoriented due to heavy smoke and a potentially changing environment in the event of a ceiling or wall collapse. Currently, no technology exists to assist firefighters with navigating unfamiliar surroundings during an emergency call.

Students from a variety of engineering disciplines are developing a smart helmet that builds a dynamic map of the smoky environment as a firefighter enters the structure. The map, like a floorplan, is then used to localize the firefighters within the structure and send information about their location to an Incident Commander (IC). This allows the IC to always know the exact location of each firefighter inside a structure, even in previously unknown environments. In the event of a firefighter mayday, since the exact location of the firefighter will now be known, rescue measures will be optimized to bring that firefighter back to safety as quickly as possible.

This project began in 2018, originally through a capstone project, and has involved 17 students to date, resulting in the development of a fully functional prototype.

Over the past year, the project has seen significant growth. During the Fall 2020 semester, two students (Tyler Paquette and Samuel Lovett) formed the FireNav team and participated in the Brilliant Catalyst start-up incubator program. 

Brilliant Catalyst is a start-up incubator based at Ontario Tech University that focuses on helping founders develop their venture and expand their entrepreneurial skills. Throughout the program participants attend lectures, receive mentorship, meet with industry experts, and compete in two pitch competitions. FireNav placed first in both competitions. Using the knowledge and skills developed during the incubator, it is the FireNav team’s goal to commercialize this life-saving technology. Through attendance in this program alone, the team has been able to transform FireNav into a four-person start-up in only four months.

While the FireNav team was working with the Brilliant Catalyst, the capstone group spent the school year investigating how new sensing technology could augment the helmet’s mapping. Thanks to their findings, the FireNav team has plans to build a new prototype this summer.

Finally, FireNav’s most recent achievement has been the development of a virtual simulation environment in which to test the helmet. This is a major milestone as it allows for fast and accurate testing of the helmet software, regardless of the conditions outside. This allows work to be done more efficiently and it is also a huge cost-saving measure. Now testing of the new helmet designs can be completed without needing to purchase expensive sensors.

The collaboration between the City of Oshawa and Ontario Tech University on this project is resulting in the development of an innovative, student-led start-up business and is contributing to the commercialization of a new life-saving technology for firefighters. Once this technology goes to market, the risk of disorientation due to heavy smoke or a changing environment will be diminished. Through the power of information and technology, FireNav will allow firefighters to work safer, bringing peace of mind to those working in these hazardous situations.

The City looks forward to further testing and piloting this new technology in the not-so-distant future.  

This project is a great example of the objectives of TeachingCity Oshawa, providing an environment for innovation, where ideas can be conceptualized, designed, developed and launched here in Oshawa.

“This project allowed me to use my creativity to make something that could make a difference in our community. Solving important problems like the ones tasked in this project summons an engineer’s utmost effort and commitment to learn. Working on this project jumpstarted my career as an engineer and gave me tools that I will never put down! This project has helped develop technology that will allow the heroes of our community to be safe and help more people.” – Karl Kanmaz, Ontario Tech University student

“The FireNav project is an interesting feat of engineering with many technical angles. As an engineer in training, there are a few projects that I can reflect on that act as the foundation for my current skill set. This project is one of them. The combination of the engineering challenges, whether it be hardware or software, provided an engaging opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone. In my experience, it is in these moments where most of the real learning occurs.” – Brayden DeBoon, Ontario Tech University student

“The project offered these students the opportunity to work closely with firefighters to find solutions that make interventions safer and more efficient. At the same time, this type of collaboration is a great benefit to students as a way for them to apply the concepts learned in class to real-word problems. The impact of this initiative goes far beyond the classroom: it inspires students to engage in social issues, promotes community involvement, and leverages the expertise of different community actors for the greater good, creating an important sense of belonging and collaboration.” – Dr. Carlos Rossa, Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science, Ontario Tech University

Public-health measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic have impacted local businesses across a variety of sectors and economic recovery is top of mind for the City of Oshawa.

The City, through the Mayor’s Economic Recovery Task Force, issued a Call for Interest for TeachingCity projects to help support economic recovery in the city. The challenge for this project was to create a set of recommendations aimed at helping to reanimate Oshawa’s downtown core and increase consumer confidence once the COVID-19 public-health restrictions are lifted. 

Students worked over a one-month period to conduct research around best practices in other cities across Canada and conducted various virtual stakeholder interviews with business owners and City officials. The students identified 12 recommended actions and ideas within three strategic areas: Beautification, Reputation & Safety, and Increasing Downtown Visitation. The students ranked the ideas using considerations such as duration, cost analysis, effort and impact.

The research and ideas will help form an action plan for the City to consider after COVID-19 public-health restrictions are lifted and businesses start to reopen. The intent is to bring vibrancy to downtown Oshawa.

“I had the opportunity to work with a fantastic team of fellow students. Within a few short weeks, we collected data from various municipalities across Canada and reached out to community stakeholders, all before critically evaluating the options available to deliver as recommendations. Moving forward, I hope that the City of Oshawa is able to find value in our research and recommendations to revitalize the downtown core.”- Catherine Duncan, Ontario Tech University student

“Working on a one-month project with other students to have an impact on reanimating Downtown Oshawa, and being able to work in a changing environment while adapting together with co-workers to create the best possible outcome was a great learning experience.”- Navleen Sandu, Ontario Tech University student

“COVID-19 has brought forward a unique set of challenges impacting local communities. Through this Brilliant Solutions project, Ontario Tech students and faculty members worked with the City of Oshawa and the Downtown Oshawa Business Improvement Area, providing substantial recommendations that will assist policy makers in their economic recovery process.” - Osman Hamid, Brilliant Catalyst, Ontario Tech University

The City of Oshawa and the Oshawa Senior Community Centres (OSCC55+) partnered to develop an Age-Friendly Strategy in 2019. To truly become an age-friendly community, it is imperative that City and OSCC55+ staff deliver programs and services with an age-friendly lens. Currently, no standard training and assessment program exists for this competency.

Students and researchers from two faculties at Ontario Tech University (Faculty of Business & IT and Faculty of Health Sciences) are collaborating with the City and the OSCC55+ to develop the Seniors Cultural Competencies Game (SCCG), an age-friendly cultural competencies training and assessment mechanism. The SCCG is organized into six modules adapted from both the World Health Organization’s international age-friendly framework and the Oshawa Age-Friendly Strategy. The SCCG is being built into an immersive virtual environment (IVE) that couples serious gaming with a gamified educational network (GEN) learning management system. IVE will enable staff to virtually interact with an older adult putting into practice the learnings from the six modules.

Upon completion, the SCCG will provide an online interactive and engaging teaching and learning experience. Staff at the City and OSCC55+ will be trained on age-friendly cultural competencies and will be able to practice and assess their age-friendly cultural skills acquired throughout the training in a safe virtual environment. The SCCG will assist in implementing the City’s Age-Friendly Strategy by enhancing an age-friendly competency among staff members to provide services and programs that meet the needs of Oshawa’s older adults. This will reinforce the City’s commitment to promoting healthy, active ageing and good quality of life for older residents. 

“I am fortunate to be part of this exciting project. The collaboration with the City of Oshawa and OSCC55+ is enriching, enabling respect, trust and knowledge exchange among institutions.” - Pam Mutombo, Ontario Tech University graduate student

“This project has benefited my research work in two ways. First, this project pivoted the scope of my research to include development and implementation of educational technologies and methods to support affective domains of learning such as verbal and nonverbal communication, cultural awareness, and ageism. Second, working with the City of Oshawa and OSCC55+ stakeholders was an eye-opening experience in how to employ scientific methods to create meaningful solutions to real-life issues.” - Dr. Adam Dubrowski, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ontario Tech University

With prolonged physical distancing, self-isolation, and stay-at-home orders, evidence of the mental-health effects of the pandemic is mounting. Many workers across Oshawa, Ontario and Canada transitioned to working from home during 2020 and 2021. Many individuals have experienced challenges maintaining strong connections and sound mental health. Mental health and wellness is key to ensuring employee satisfaction and productivity. 

Prior research has shown that sharing through peer-based systems can be helpful. Peer sharing is often preferred over formal therapy as it is perceived as more relatable and less stigmatizing. In this project, the research team set out to create a chat-bot system for people to anonymously share stores of challenges and successes related to the pandemic and to read the stories submitted by others.

The data collected by the app was used to create a visualization system to allow users to “find themselves” in the data, to see the stories shared by others and help people feel a sense of solidarity and community. 

The research team at Ontario Tech University has partnered with both Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences and the City of Oshawa on this project, and it is financially supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Alliance Grant Program in response to COVID-19. The easy-to-use chat-bot-based technology to allow anonymous sharing of the struggles and triumphs of the COVID-19 pandemic will be piloted and tested by employees at Ontario Shores and the City.  

The technology created by this project will allow people to express their feelings and feel less alone while dealing with the challenges of the pandemic. The technology developed in this work may be possible to repurpose for other targeted areas in the future.

In addition, the anonymous data collected through the technology will result in a public data set that can be used to study the immediate and ongoing effects of the pandemic on mental health. 

“Designing the bubble exploration and the menus accompanying it greatly challenged my user interface (UI), user experience (UX) and web development skills. I can now say that I am capable of creating novel websites.” – Shawn Yama, Ontario Tech University graduate student

“We have felt very well supported by the City of Oshawa. HR professionals gave us excellent insight into the challenges faced by people working from home, which we used to guide the chat script development. This project is incredibly rewarding to work on as we hope it can make a real difference for the people of Oshawa and beyond.” – Dr. Christopher Collins, Faculty of Science, Ontario Tech University

Road safety for both vehicles and pedestrians is of utmost concern to the City of Oshawa. One area of interest is the area in the vicinity of Durham College and Ontario Tech University. In 2018, the City created a Community Safety Zone along Conlin Road. The City saw an opportunity to utilize sensors and other monitors to study the traffic/pedestrian patterns at the intersection of Simcoe Street and Conlin Road to assist in developing new and innovative safety measures for pedestrian safety.

A research team at Ontario Tech University, under the supervision of Dr. Khalid Elgazzar, took on this challenge and are endeavouring to build a resilient cyber-physical infrastructure that collects, stores and manages traffic information from live video feeds. The project relies on the development of intelligent traffic analysis algorithms that transform traffic data into useful information to help local governments better respond to emergencies, manage resources, improve planning, and make more informed decisions on real-time traffic status and events. These algorithms include pedestrian counting, vehicle counting and classification. The project deploys four HD cameras to monitor the vehicular and pedestrian traffic around the Ontario Tech campus.

In 2020/2021, two master’s students and one postdoctoral student worked on different parts of the project. The project was also the main focus of one graduate course including 12 graduate students. To date, the research team has developed a number of intelligent traffic analysis algorithms to classify and count vehicles and count pedestrians crossing intersections. The team is also developing an algorithm to detect jaywalking and store these incidences for playback. Human faces and car plates are masked to preserve the privacy of entities. 

Through this project, regular reports will be generated showing some statistical analysis (e.g., traffic and pedestrian count) to inform the City of incidences of interest. These reports will provide a better understanding of the traffic flow and patterns of pedestrian crossing around the Ontario Tech campus to support the City in making the roads safer for both vehicles and pedestrians. 

“I am very happy to be part of this interesting project. It’s my first time to participate in building a practical project that applies the concepts we learn from the computer engineering and software design books to benefit the community.” – Aida Vatankhan, Ontario Tech University graduate student

“The project helped me to engage with more industrial partners and collaborate on applying the deep learning technology to develop advanced data analytics techniques in their products. The funding I received from the City in this project supported me to apply for further funding and I received two grants, one from NorthLine Canada Ltd. and one from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.” – Dr. Khalid Elgazzar, Faculty of Engineering & Applied Science, Ontario Tech University