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News releases from SFU Surrey's Global Community Open House 2013:
News releases from SFU Surrey's Open House 2012:
- Feb 29: Healing heels solve fashion pain - Open House feature
- Feb 28: Flight Technology Showcased at Open House
- Feb 28: Virtual reality key to managing chronic pain
- Feb 28: SFU Surrey Open House: Cupcakes and Photo Ops
- Feb 27: India experience impacts health students
- Feb 27: Rainwater project to shine at Open House
- Feb 24: ‘Maggot artists’ show insect value in solving crime
- Feb 23: Open House features ocean power, maggot art
- Feb 9: Surrey campus turns 10 - join the party
Healing heels solve fashion pain - Open House feature
Feb. 29, 2012
Two Simon Fraser University students are taking the pain out of high-heeled shoes.
Their Head Over Heels project – to be showcased at SFU Surrey’s Open House on March 1 - was inspired “by the love of high heel shoes and the pain they have caused millions of women all over the world,” says Nasim Jahangiri.
Jahangiri and Pantea Shahsavani, both students in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology, designed a shoe that incorporates a pressure sensor under the heel inside the shoe. It vibrates after a period of time, prompting the user to manually change the height of the shoe’s heel.
The stylish, five-inch heel can be adjusted to a more comfortable two and a half-inch height.
“We wanted to create a new design for shoes that maintains the aesthetics of the high-heeled shoes which we love, but with a form which offers comfort and functionality, and also addresses the pain and health risks associated with wearing high heels,” adds Shahsavani.
The student project is one of many to be featured March 1 at SFU Surrey’s 10th anniversary Open House from 4-8 p.m.
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Simon Fraser University
Public Affairs/Media Relations (PAMR)
778.782.3210 www.sfu.ca/pamr
Contact:
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca
Photo: http://at.sfu.ca/XXQLVa
Flight technology showcased at Open House
Feb. 28, 2012
A team of Simon Fraser University students is preparing for take off in May –that’s when their unmanned air systems will begin the competition circuit.
Dubbed Team Guardian, the students will first feature their projects at SFU Surrey’s March 1 Open House.
The two UAV competitions include the Unmanned Systems Canada Student Competition in May and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) Student Unmanned Air Systems Competition in June.
The crafts are designed as potential surveillance devices small enough to maneuver into difficult locations, for example, assisting fire crews by relaying video of terrain where forest fires are burning.
“The work we are doing to prepare for the competitions is focused on improving our previous system to complete more tasks without human intervention,” says team member Tim Gjernes.
The team will showcase its current UAV system, modeled on an E-Flite Apprentice trainer and featuring a software autopilot system known as ArduPilot Mega - as well as another prototype for a custom built plane that is still a work in progress.
Team Guardian will be among dozens of student teams showcasing their work during the open house, which will also celebrate the campus’s 10th anniversary.
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Simon Fraser University
Public Affairs/Media Relations (PAMR)
778.782.3210 www.sfu.ca/pamr
Contact:
Tim Gjernes; tag3@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca
Photo: http://at.sfu.ca/zgFKZJ
Virtual reality key to managing chronic pain
Feb. 28, 2012
Studies underway in Diane Gromala’s pain studies lab are testing whether those in chronic pain may get more relief from being fully immersed in a virtual experience – such as a 3-D skiing adventure computer game – than taking pain medication.
Visitors to the lab during SFU Surrey’s March 1 Open House will have a chance to see its virtual walking meditation project, where subjects walk on a treadmill viewing a 3-D scene of a forest, that changes according to the body’s physiological readings.
Gromala, an associate professor in the School for Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) and fellow researchers will be on hand to talk about the lab and the new computerized therapies being developed there.
Gromala heads the Transforming Pain Research Group at SFU and the VR lab is the only one of its kind, anywhere.
The research is showing that computerized therapies can give people in chronic pain – one in five Canadians – ways to cope while they wait for treatment from specialist.
The lab tour is one of many opportunities to see SFU research first-hand during SFU Surrey’s open house.
Note: Gromala is on sabbatical and will be leaving town a few days after the open house.
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Simon Fraser University
Public Affairs/Media Relations (PAMR)
778.782.3210 www.sfu.ca/pamr
Contact:
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017/4323; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca
Photo: http://at.sfu.ca/JYxqZG
SFU Surrey Open House: Cupcakes and Photo Ops
Feb. 28, 2012
Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus is turning 10 and will celebrate at its Open House on Thursday, March 1 from 4 – 8 p.m., featuring dozens of great visuals. Here’s a sample:
- Focus on flight – small-scale, unmanned air systems capable of performing surveillance duties during forest fires as well as other tasks will be showcased by SFU students who are part of Team Guardian. They’ll compete nationally with their projects in May.
- Maggot painting – criminology’s entomologists will show how students become accustom to working with insects - useful in solving crimes – by dipping them in safe, non-toxic paint and setting them free to create colorful art.
- Healing heels - among featured student projects is a simple high heeled shoe – but this one self-adjusts to relieve the pain typically associated with wearing stilettos
- Robot battles – robots built from Lego with sensors and motors will compete like Sumo wrestlers, part of a first-year Mechatronics Systems Engineering class;
- Interactive sharks – an animated projection will transform a concrete staircase into an interactive shark tank
- Manage your pain – see why chronic pain sufferers immersed in a 3D skiing adventure computer game may get more relief than those taking pain relievers
- Stinks, bangs and sealife – new science wet labs will host a gamut of live experiments and provide an aquatic ‘touch tank’ with touchable sea creatures
- Harvesting rain – Noro, a portable rainwater harvesting system, is among examples of sustainability-driven student inventions to be demonstrated
- Shaker car – see a small scale version of the vibration testing machines in Mechatronics Systems Engineering that are at work creating new energy sources
- Much music – guest artists Dirty Radio will perform in the Mezzanine at 6 p.m. The band is among a variety of musicians who’ll take to the stage. A kid zone and variety of artists will also provide entertainment.
- Happy Birthday cupcakes – Join in a Happy Birthday tribute to SFU Surrey at 6:20 p.m.
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Simon Fraser University
Public Affairs/Media Relations (PAMR)
778.782.3210 www.sfu.ca/pamr
Contact:
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca
India experience impacts health students
Feb. 27, 2012
Four Simon Fraser University health sciences students will share their experiences in India with an organization committed to empowering women during SFU Surrey’s March 1 Open House (at 6 p.m.)
All students of health sciences professor Rochelle Tucker, who studies gender and health status globally, they spent four months as co-op students in Kolkata, India working with Destiny Reflection, an organization that recruits women from shelters and brothels and provides them with dignified employment opportunities.
The students worked on a number of projects, from deciphering fair trade agreements and inventory management to creating healthy eating plans.
“We like to describe India as our classroom,” says student Martyna Purchla, noting that among their most rewarding projects was the creation of a fruit and vegetable initiative.
“We noticed that many of the girls were anemic or had other health complications, which could be averted by a proper diet. We tried alternative recipes and cooked and ate with the girls. These activities were triggers to our bonding.”
Students are now focusing their efforts on raising awareness about sex trafficking. They are developing a social venture called BAGS (Better Alternatives for Girls’ Survival), aimed at enabling more girls to be hired at Destiny Reflection.
The discussion will be among dozens of displays, exhibits and talks during SFU Surrey’s 10th anniversary Open House (Mar. 1 from 4-8 p.m.), aimed at giving prospective students and the general public an opportunity to check out the wide-ranging programs and services offered at the campus.
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Simon Fraser University
Public Affairs/Media Relations (PAMR)
778.782.3210 www.sfu.ca/pamr
Contact:
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca
Rainwater project to shine at Open House
Feb. 27, 2012
A student team in Simon Fraser University’s School of Interactive Arts and Technology will showcase an invention designed to simplify water needs for disaster relief and wilderness travelers, at SFU Surrey’s Open House Mar. 1 (4-8 p.m.)
Noro, a Finnish word meaning ‘trickle,’ will be one of dozens of projects and interactive exhibits on display during the open house, a celebration of the Surrey campus’s 10th anniversary event.
Noro is a portable rainwater harvesting system, and part of a family of student-designed products that work in extreme conditions and allows for extended access to fresh water in remote areas.
The system works by collecting water in a large cylinder expandable to nearly a meter long, funneling it through a mesh and into a two-stage filtration process, where it is purified of metals, parasites, solvents and debris and stored in an expanding reservoir until needed.
The open house event will provide potential students and the general public with the opportunity to check out the campus and its wide-ranging programs and services – along with entertainment and birthday cupcakes.
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Simon Fraser University
Public Affairs/Media Relations (PAMR)
778.782.3210 www.sfu.ca/pamr
Contact:
Andrew Drinkwater, SIAT, 778.782.2250; agd@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca
Photo: http://at.sfu.ca/hPimjD
‘Maggot artists’ show insect value in solving crime
Feb. 24, 2012
The pitter-patter of painted feet won’t be audible but the results will be highly visible when maggots become tiny artists at the Simon Fraser University Surrey campus community Open House on March 1 (4-8 p.m.)
They’ll be part of a criminology demo showing how students become accustom to dealing with insects, now recognized as valuable evidence in human and animal death investigations.
“Studying the insects associated with human or animal remains allows a forensic entomologist to estimate minimum elapsed time since death, whether the body has been moved or disturbed as well as position of wounds, drug use and abuse,” says SFU forensic entomologist Gail Anderson.
“Maggot painting involves using safe, non-toxic paint to allow students to get used to handling maggots, to get them over the 'ick' factor and learn to appreciate their value,” adds Anderson, an associate professor of criminology.
The demo will involve setting the paint-dipped insect on sheets of white paper to create colorful patterns.
Anderson has spent more than two decades assisting crime investigators in Canada and further afield by providing key evidence as a result of her ‘CSI’-like expertise. More recently she has spent time instructing Canadian and U.S. sheriffs and park rangers how to extract evidence from animal victims of wildlife crime, formerly known as poaching.
The demo will be one of dozens featured during the open house designed to inform the general public and prospective students about the many programs and services at the campus, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
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Simon Fraser University
Public Affairs/Media Relations (PAMR)
778.782.3210 www.sfu.ca/pamr
Contact:
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017/4323; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca
Website: http://www.surrey.sfu.ca/openhouse
Open House features ocean power, maggot art
Feb. 23, 2012
Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus is celebrating 10 years in the community on Thursday, March 1 from 4-8 p.m. with a showcase of the university’s wide-ranging programs and services, student projects, faculty research, and fun and entertainment for everyone.
People of all ages are invited to SFU Surrey’s community Open House to check out the architecturally-award-winning campus, home to more than 6,000 students.
What you’ll see: unmanned aerial vehicles taking flight, robots in battle, ocean power recreated, a virtual shark tank, pain management via video games, stinks and bangs in the new science labs, and painted maggots creating art.
A birthday cake made of individual cupcakes and entertainment by Dirty Radio will also be featured. (SFU President Andrew Petter will attend in the evening).
The event offers prospective students and the general public the chance to speak with staff, advisors and experts on everything you’ll find at SFU Surrey.
Among the activities:
- Painted maggots will run free and create art, in this demo by the School of Criminology. Maggots are dipped in a safe and non-toxic paint and let loose on a white canvas to create an artistic masterpiece. The activity – used to lessen the ‘ick’ factor among criminology students – will be demonstrated by SFU forensic entomologist Gail Anderson, who studies insects for their value as evidence in human and animal death investigations.
- Simulations of the ocean’s power, created by students in the popular Mechatronics Systems Engineering (MSE) program. See the newly created Ocean Turbine Emulator, which simulates the process of ocean power generation using turbines.
- Members of Team Guardian, also MSE students, are preparing their unmanned aerial vehicles for competition this May. The large-scale vehicles are equipped with sensors and have been developed with the goal of assisting fire fighters in remote locations by giving them an aerial viewpoint.
- Students in the School of Interactive Arts and Technology (SIAT) have taken a small bit of fashion – the high heel – and designed an interactive heel they say could change the way women think about stilettos.
- Other SIAT students have created a portable rain harvesting system called Noro, designed to work in extreme climates to gather water from streams, rivers, snow, rain, even fog. Noro provides portable water and allows for extended access to fresh water in remote areas. Meanwhile others have designed Shark Attack, an animated interactive projection that transforms a concrete staircase into an interactive shark tank.
- Hear how a group of health sciences students impacted communities in India through their involvement in Destiny Reflection, a program that reaches out to young girls involved in sex trafficking.
- Explore the new science labs now open in SFU Surrey’s new Podium 2 wing, providing first and second-year students with the ability to complete all of their science coursework in Surrey. Experiments in chemistry and physics and hands-on demos in biology will be among highlights.
For a complete list of activities check www.surrey.sfu.ca/openhouse
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Simon Fraser University
Public Affairs/Media Relations (PAMR)
778.782.3210 www.sfu.ca/pamr
Contact:
Marianne Meadahl, PAMR, 778.782.9017; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca
Website: http://www.surrey.sfu.ca/openhouse
Surrey campus turns 10 - join the party
Feb. 9, 2012
Simon Fraser University’s Surrey campus turns 10 this year and will celebrate the landmark anniversary with a community Open House on March 1 from 4 – 8 p.m.
The campus, housed in the Central City shopping mall, officially opened in 2002 with an enrolment of 565 students.
A decade later, more than 6,000 students attend classes at the expansive 350,000 sq ft. campus designed by award-winning architect Bing Thom & Associates with additional facilities that opened in 2006. The campus was further developed in 2011 with new space – including science labs and classrooms - in Podium 2.
SFU Surrey Executive Director Joanne Curry is inviting the community to celebrate the milestone of SFU’s first decade in Surrey's City Centre.
“I’ve seen many changes in the neighbourhood, including a completely leased office tower, new residential construction, and a new city library,” says Curry, who has directed the campus since day one. “What is unchanged is the excitement and support of the community. We truly feel a part of the fabric of Surrey and the South Fraser."
The Technical University of British Columbia (TechBC) formerly occupied the space from 1999 until its closure by the provincial government in 2002. Responsibility for TechBC students, facilities and assets were transferred to SFU, which committed to continuing its programs in interactive arts and information technology (now an SFU school known as SIAT).
Curry, who headed SFU’s transition team, called the task “an amazing accomplishment by so many people” given the work involved in merging numerous systems, including registrars and the library, while recruiting new students in a highly charged environment.
Former President Michael Stevenson said the campus demonstrated to the local community SFU’s commitment to a long-term Fraser Valley presence. Today SFU Surrey, as part of the city’s revitalized downtown core, is increasingly engaging with communities south of the Fraser River, notes President Andrew Petter, who will attend the March 1event and will be available to media to speak about Surrey campus developments as well as SFU’s new strategic vision, which will be formally launched later this month.
Featured during the March 1 open house will be demos and exhibits from all programs and services, including displays of Mechatronics Systems Engineering’s shaker car and other projects, SIAT’s futuristic iSpace lab, and chemistry and biology lab experiments, along with entertainment and information sessions on all SFU programs.
Backgrounder
SFU’s Surrey campus was opened in the fall of 2002 and the City of Surrey proclaimed the opening week “Simon Fraser University Week” to acknowledge the new relationship with the university.
In the fall of 2006 the campus held a re-opening ceremony after moving from its base in the former Surrey Place shopping centre and into a “masterpiece” of space designed by architect Bing Thom at Central City Mall. Last fall, Podium 2, a new wing of labs and classrooms, was officially opened.
Research continues to expand at the campus with such facilities as a Virtual Pain Lab, an International Centre for Cybercrime Research, and new Mechatronics Systems Engineering labs, where research includes tests of vehicle suspension systems to produce alterative energy for cars and safety testing of improved materials for helmets. Biomedical engineering research is also taking root at SFU Surrey.
Ties continue to grow with the community through student initiatives like the earth-friendly, high school targeted Banner Bags project, research partnerships with industry, and growing community outreach, through such events as the ongoing Cafes Scientifique offered to the public by SFU and Fraser Health, each sharing expertise to increasepublic awareness on key health issues.
The positive community impact of both SFU's Surrey and Vancouver campuses was recognized in 2009 with the IPAC/Deloitte gold award in public sector leadership.
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Simon Fraser University
Public Affairs/Media Relations (PAMR)
778.782.3210 www.sfu.ca/pamr
Contact:
Joanne Curry, 778.782.7475; joannec@sfu.ca
Marianne Meadahl, 778.782.9017; Marianne_Meadahl@sfu.ca
Website: http://www.surrey.sfu.ca/openhouse
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