Edmonton troupe finds a creative way to keep performing during pandemic
Carlean Fisher has been in love with the stage for as long as she can remember. As a young woman, pulling the curtains from backstage was enough to feel the rush, until years later when she got involved as a player with Edmonton’s Walterdale Theatre. “It’s an important part of who I am, ever since…Unique research links academic findings with concrete change for Muslim communities
For Jordana Salma, academic research should be a two-way street: an ongoing cycle of asking questions, identifying concerns and then working with communities to address them. The assistant professor in the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Nursing relies on Alberta’s Muslim community to guide her studies of aging and health for seniors. In return, she promises to…
Creating a more inclusive economy
Solving poverty in our communities goes far beyond charities and social agencies. Graduates with business, civic planning, arts and other backgrounds have just as much to contribute as social workers, according to University of Alberta poverty researcher Maria Mayan. “We have great young thinkers within our university who want to make a difference in the world…
Eden Redman co-founded student group-turned-non-profit to support students exploring new ways for computers to interact with the brain
Everything from brain-controlled prosthetics to games that are responsive to brain activity are within our grasp, according to University of Alberta student Eden Redman. Redman’s work promoting and expanding access to brainwave-sensing technology has earned him the Student Entrepreneur of the Year award at Startup Edmonton’s YEG Startup Community Awards. Announced at an online ceremony in May,…
A grad of U of A’s fashion business management program, Frances Heaton gained a deep understanding of the industry and a strong network
Frances Heaton has always loved dabbling in fashion design, even creating her own figure skating outfits as a kid. “It’s like art, but with human bodies, which has always intrigued me.” Fast-forward to spring of 2021, as she becomes one of the first graduates of the University of Alberta’s bachelor of science in fashion business…
Iman Mersal won the prestigious Sheikh Zayed Book Award for her creative non-fiction novel recounting the life of a gifted young author
As a young poet cutting her teeth in Cairo, Iman Mersal randomly picked up a novel she’d never heard of in a discount book market in 1993. She was immediately struck by the narrator’s voice, and the mystery surrounding a gifted but virtually unknown author who struggled to be an artist during the political turbulence of 1960s…
DrugBank now used by scientists, pharmaceutical companies and other customers around the world
An Edmonton startup has become the world’s largest pharmaceutical knowledge database through research that began at the University of Alberta. DrugBank offers a one-stop-shop for curated scientific data on thousands of drugs, including molecular details, chemical structures, targets and proteins, as well as clinical information on side-effects, interactions with other drugs, allergies, synonym names, availability…
'Defund the police’ movement does nothing to address the root causes of criminality
The year is not yet over, and Calgary has already recorded more than 26 homicides, after 20 in 2019. Edmonton has witnessed a 90 per cent spike in assaults with weapons or causing bodily harm. Unbelievably, rather than tackling this escalating violence head-on, officials have joined a utopian crusade against police. Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson…
Local startup founded by U of A graduates teaches basics of programming in more than 30 Edmonton-area schools
U of A graduate students are teaching Edmonton elementary students how to write computer code for simple games and apps. The coding may be simple – just a few instructions enabling a computer to calculate whether it’s too cold for recess, for example – but the logic is the same as you find in more…
U of A computing scientists working with Edmonton company to find out if applying AI to water treatment is a financial, environmental win-win
A pilot project leveraging the University of Alberta’s artificial intelligence expertise to improve the process of making drinking water safe is up and running in Drayton Valley, Alta. The U of A’s Reinforcement Learning and Artificial Intelligence Lab, along with the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute, an Alberta not-for-profit institute with U of A affiliations, Edmonton infrastructure technology…