RE/ACTION Showcase

AC students document Yazidi genocide in online portal

Students in the Interdisciplinary Studies in Human-Centred Design program at Algonquin College have developed a framework for an online resource portal cataloguing the genocide against the Yazidi people, as well as their culture and traditions. The project is one of many submitted for the next RE/ACTION Showcase on Friday, Aug. 12, where students will showcase leading-edge applied research to an audience of peers, faculty and community partners.

In partnership with Yazidi Legal Network, student researchers Anne Millar and Benjamin Varghese conducted research to envision what the portal could look like and developed a framework within the scope of the project. Their findings will serve as a proof-of-concept to create a database on crimes against Yazidis for various user groups, including human rights lawyers, academics, humanitarian workers and the Yazidis themselves.

Yazidis are Kurmanji-speaking peoples indigenous to the Kurdistan region. Canada has officially recognized the genocide of the Yazidi people by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as Daesh. According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, over 1,400 Yazidi survivors of Daesh have resettled in Canada as of January 2021.

Continue reading →

AC students design personal safety app ahead of RE/ACTION Showcase

A team of Computer Engineering students at Algonquin College wanted to make safely walking the streets as easy as pushing a button.

The project, which will be presented during the RE/ACTION Showcase on Aug. 12, has culminated in a personal safety app called Aegis. Currently, in its beta phase, the app is designed to send emergency messages to a prechosen personal contact using Short Message Service (SMS) signalling.

“A user decides to choose specific contacts that they trust, and then when they know they’re going somewhere, they just input the address and then [make their way] there,” said group member Musa Bisimwa.

“And if they’re in distress at any time, [the app has] an SOS button. Once they click it, the person they selected will receive their current [location], and that person can either call them to figure out what’s wrong or call emergency services.”

Continue reading →

AC student fundraising group raises $1,000 in donations to fight food insecurity

Vipul Grover and his team in the Project Management program at Algonquin College wanted to help fight food insecurity among students. Their resulting fundraising project is one of the many that will be on display during the RE/ACTION Showcase on Aug. 12.

Their plan was designed with the intent to raise $1,000 in grocery donations for the College’s Students’ Association Food Cupboard, a resource that provides groceries and other aid to students who are financially struggling.

Roughly 40 per cent of post-secondary students in Canada face inadequate access to food, according to a study released by Meal Exchange, a Canadian charitable organization. Grover and his team — also consisting of Brianna Munch, Juhi Pinto, Karen Gil, Ronak Bhasin and Ekta Patel — chose to work on student food security due to team members and friends’ previous use of the Food Cupboard.

Continue reading →