The Edge is here
Partnerships that power innovation
Our students and researchers are driving change around the world, powered by the UVic Edge. That vital impact—working with communities, governments and businesses—has put our region at the forefront of scientific and commercial breakthroughs, and achievements in culture and creativity. Powering the future
Working with business and community partners—at home in Canada and in communities around the globe—has helped make UVic a leader in a wide range of fields, including Indigenous languages and law, clean energy, Earth and ocean sciences, climate change, high-energy physics and health. That’s part of the reason Indigenous governance (IGov) master’s graduate Melina Laboucan-Massimo chose UVic for her studies.
Laboucan-Massimo, a 33-year-old member of the Lubicon Cree First Nation in northern Alberta, enrolled with a specific goal in mind: to plan the Pitapan Solar Installation, a beacon of hope and change for Indigenous and environmental issues in her home community.
Jeff Corntassel, director of UVic’s IGov program —a blended program of online learning and on-campus sessions that allowed Laboucan-Massimo to work and stay connected to home and family—saw a perfect fit. “This is a grassroots project where Indigenous governance, sustainability and resurgence converge—and it’s being done on the community’s terms without government money.”
With her degree complete and her plan in place, Laboucan-Massimo gained the support of her community to begin the Pitapan solar energy project in the summer of 2015. Their process included community consultation, fundraising, scouting out suitable locations,
deciphering complex electrical configuration methods, safety planning, construction and dealing with a range of challenging issues that came up along the way.
Today, Little Buffalo is home to an inspiring 80-panel solar project that generates 20.8 kilowatts of energy. The project powers a health centre with excess flowing into the community’s energy mix. “There are plans for an even larger project to generate more clean energy and revenue for the community,” says Laboucan-Massimo. “This is just the first phase.”
New tools for different minds
Aided by nearly a decade of input from hundreds of Greater Victoria-area children, psychologist Jim Tanaka and the UVic Centre for Autism Research Technology and Education (CARTE) are giving people with autism all over the world a fun new way to hone their social skills.
Since 2007, Tanaka and CARTE have run UVic Face Camp—a summer program that collects research data while engaging children in the science of face recognition. That program has led, in part, to the development of new tools to help people with autism spectrum disorder improve their social and emotional communication.
One of those tools is Let’s Face It! Scrapbook—a free iPad app that helps people on the autism spectrum identify faces and read emotions. After two years of weekend coding sessions and hack-a-thons, Tanaka and his team of UVic computer and psychology students launched the app on the iTunes Store in April. Its unique feature is that it teaches face recognition using the images and videos from the user’s everyday life—family members, friends and teachers.