Research projects
Athabasca University's IDEA Lab is a hub of innovation, where researchers use digital tools to push the boundaries of our understanding and create new solutions to complex problems.
With a wide range of projects spanning diverse fields, from microbiology and sustainability to language stigmatization and critical race studies, IDEA Lab is dedicated to supporting AU researchers solving the biggest challenges facing our world today.
Use the tool below to explore IDEA Lab projects.
Several times a year, IDEA Lab opens a call for applications through which we intake new projects. After the application deadline, the applications go through a review process which includes two stages.
In the first stage, SMEs prepare reports collectively representing a range of perspectives (planned technologies, knowledge mobilization, external grant plans, data management, etc.). Reviewers comment on each application's strengths, weaknesses, or risks.
In the second stage, a review panel meets to make final decisions based on the academic merit of the applications. With the comments gathered in the first stage, the review panel has the necessary insights to make well-informed decisions about the applications.
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Understanding Affordable Housing Work Roles and Representation
Dr. Katie MacDonald, Ms. Mary Clarke
This project examines two challenges in the Canadian affordable housing sector - the first being that there is no clear career trajectory in housing, and since the sector is fragmented, there is no consensus on what skills and capacities are necessary
... Read moreUnderstanding Affordable Housing Work Roles and Representation
This project examines two challenges in the Canadian affordable housing sector - the first being that there is no clear career trajectory in housing, and since the sector is fragmented, there is no consensus on what skills and capacities are necessary and how to either recruit for them or help develop them in workers. The second challenge investigated is that there is much public opposition to affordable housing developments (often referred to as NIMBYism), and public opinion can often prevent affordable housing from happening. Researchers use Amazon Web Services to analyze news articles about affordable housing policy for the sentiment of articles, when citizens are quoted, and to map any changes in the time periods alongside significant public policy conversations.
An exploration of digital strategies for sustaining engagement in research and genomics education (DSERGE)
Dr. Jacqueline Limoges, Dr. Nicole Letourneau, Ms. Rebecca Puddester, Dr. April pike, Dr. Lindsay Carlsson
The aims of this project are to develop digital-first research strategies that would enable the ability to measure nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and competence in genomics-informed practices, engage in knowledge mobilization on genomics, measure the impact
... Read moreAn exploration of digital strategies for sustaining engagement in research and genomics education (DSERGE)
The aims of this project are to develop digital-first research strategies that would enable the ability to measure nurses’ knowledge, attitudes and competence in genomics-informed practices, engage in knowledge mobilization on genomics, measure the impact of returning the knowledge score on the GGNPS-CA, and measure sustained engagement by participation in online learning modules after the survey. Researchers are using REDCap and Moodle for this project.
e-Race-sures
This project is an exploration of how digital tools can support the gathering and creating of resources around cultural studies and environmental humanities. By using digital tools, this project explores ways of remediating the harms of colonization through making histories and reclamations more visible.
Research Creation: Research creation/collaboration in shared, virtual learning spaces
This project explores how cloud-based tools could support steps for research in Humanities, to experiment with tools like Jupyter notebook, Python 3, Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Translate, and Amazon QuickSight to assess their value and ease of usability
... Read moreResearch Creation: Research creation/collaboration in shared, virtual learning spaces
This project explores how cloud-based tools could support steps for research in Humanities, to experiment with tools like Jupyter notebook, Python 3, Amazon Comprehend, Amazon Translate, and Amazon QuickSight to assess their value and ease of useability for Humanities research, and to evaluate the use of high-powered cloud services such as Ronin and Amazon Web Services for supporting research in Digital Humanities.
Heritage Documentation and Digital Preservation: The Use of Cloud-based Services for Heritage Conservation (The case of St. Albert River Lots)
Dr. Shabnam Inanloo Dailoo, Dr. Alireza Farrokhi, Ms. Ann Ramsden (joint partner)
This IDEA Lab project focuses on the application of cloud computing services to facilitate heritage documentation and digital preservation of heritage resources. It examines St. Albert River Lots in Alberta, western Canada and will contribute to a larger
... Read moreHeritage Documentation and Digital Preservation: The Use of Cloud-based Services for Heritage Conservation (The case of St. Albert River Lots)
This IDEA Lab project focuses on the application of cloud computing services to facilitate heritage documentation and digital preservation of heritage resources. It examines St. Albert River Lots in Alberta, western Canada and will contribute to a larger research idea on the Climate Vulnerability Index (CVI) and its application in heritage conservation practice in Canada which is currently under development. Multiple digital tools are being used to achieve project objectives: AWS EC2, AWS S3 bucket, file transmission technologies (Cyberduck, WinSCP, and SCP/SSH), and 3D processing applications (WebODM, 3DF Zephyr, and Meshroom).
Faster Content Identification for User’s Question
According to an earlier experiment involving Ask4Summary, it takes 10 to 12 minutes for a response to a user’s question containing less than 10 words. This project assesses the improvement of identifying content related to users’ questions in terms of
... Read moreFaster Content Identification for User’s Question
According to an earlier experiment involving Ask4Summary, it takes 10 to 12 minutes for a response to a user’s question containing less than 10 words. This project assesses the improvement of identifying content related to users’ questions in terms of search space differences between the existing method and the AWS Comprehend-supported method. This project uses Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), AWS Comprehend’s Entity Recognition and Topic Modeling API, and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).
Unearthing the Microbiology of Hydrocarbon Cycling in Global Metagenomic Datasets
Marine microbes fix more carbon and produce more oxygen than the Amazon rainforest. Some of these seawater microbes can synthesize alkanes – a type of hydrocarbon. These alkanes are then released into the water column and act as a carbon source for a
... Read moreUnearthing the Microbiology of Hydrocarbon Cycling in Global Metagenomic Datasets
Marine microbes fix more carbon and produce more oxygen than the Amazon rainforest. Some of these seawater microbes can synthesize alkanes – a type of hydrocarbon. These alkanes are then released into the water column and act as a carbon source for alkane-degrading bacteria. These bacteria oxidize alkanes back to carbon dioxide for energy, thus completing a hydrocarbon cycle. In this project, researchers hypothesize that microbes that are part of the marine hydrocarbon cycling will contain gene encoding for this metabolic cycling and show a co-abundance pattern. To test this hypothesis, large-scale data analysis is required to sift through DNA sequencing data collected globally. Cloud resources like Amazon Web Services enable bioinformatics software to carry out this data mining.
The Grey Zone of Soviet Liberation: History and Memory of Sexual Violence
Global memory approaches the 1945 liberation of the Holocaust survivors by the Red Army as an ultimate rescue from Nazi terror or as a Hollywood-style “happy ending”. The “happy ending” survival myth has been routinely prioritized for educational
... Read moreThe Grey Zone of Soviet Liberation: History and Memory of Sexual Violence
Global memory approaches the 1945 liberation of the Holocaust survivors by the Red Army as an ultimate rescue from Nazi terror or as a Hollywood-style “happy ending”. The “happy ending” survival myth has been routinely prioritized for educational purposes since the end of the war. The concepts of renewal and starting from Year Zero in the post-1945 era have also been one of the main underpinning assumptions of important oral testimonies’ collections such as the Visual History Archive. This project offers a more nuanced interpretation of liberation as a grey zone by exploring individual and local history and short-term and long-term memory of liberation. In particular, researchers contextualize the Soviet Army liberation of the Jewish victims as the moment of displacement and violence as an exclusionary process after "liberation." This project uses Amazon Translate, Transcribe, and Textract.
Supporting Online Learners’ Motivation through Technology-enabled Collaborations and Assessment
Using emerging cloud-based technologies and collaborative tools offered by AWS, this project will address the following questions: (1) How do we, as educators and designers, use technology enabled collaborative tools and assessments to create an
... Read moreSupporting Online Learners’ Motivation through Technology-enabled Collaborations and Assessment
Using emerging cloud-based technologies and collaborative tools offered by AWS, this project will address the following questions: (1) How do we, as educators and designers, use technology enabled collaborative tools and assessments to create an online environment that better supports learner’s access and motivation in AU courses? (e.g., Universal Design for Learning, Self-Determination Theory of competency, autonomy and relatedness) (2) What key factors contribute to an online learners' success and sustained motivation over the course of their graduate program (2-6 years for MEd or EdD programs)? This project includes multiple stages and experimentation with AWS cloud-based tools.
Community-Based Environmental Monitoring Websites: Extending Accessibility
This project focuses on developing a mobile-friendly version of the circumborealfoods.com website, which is centered on a circumpolar perspective and allows communities to share specific examples of boreal food procurement and processing through text
... Read moreCommunity-Based Environmental Monitoring Websites: Extending Accessibility
This project focuses on developing a mobile-friendly version of the circumborealfoods.com website, which is centered on a circumpolar perspective and allows communities to share specific examples of boreal food procurement and processing through text, photos, and video. A mobile version is necessary, as many Indigenous people in the north access the internet through their phones or other smart devices rather than with computers. The website will act as a repository and educational site for circumboreal communities and our research projects, and it will also generate more qualitative data that feeds into our research. This project uses multiple digital tools, including EC2 instances, S3, AWS Amplify, and an auto-scaling group.
AU Hydrology Research Database
This IDEA Lab project aims to develop a suitable database management solution that enables automated remote data collection from field-based data logging stations and interfaces these data with a cloud-based storage solution. The team is also using Amazon QuickSight to integrate data access and visualization tools for hydrological variables being measured in the field.
Digital Avatar and Twin (DAT) for Telepresence Robot-Empowered Smart Lab
Dr. Qing Tan, Dr. Frederique Pivot
This project aims to leverage robot telepresence technology, particularly VR/AR/MR technologies, to create a smart laboratory to enhance hands-on or first-person experiences for online distance learners. In this project, a telepresence robot, Amazon
... Read moreDigital Avatar and Twin (DAT) for Telepresence Robot-Empowered Smart Lab
This project aims to leverage robot telepresence technology, particularly VR/AR/MR technologies, to create a smart laboratory to enhance hands-on or first-person experiences for online distance learners. In this project, a telepresence robot, Amazon Sumerian (or similar, leveraging other cloud-based or AWS tools) platform; and the VR gears, particularly Oculus Quest 2 and Oculus Touch controllers will be used to develop and implement the 3D digital avatar of human (user) and digital twin of the telepresence robot to perform a master-slave robot teleoperation with MR enhanced telepresence.
Prevalence, predictors, and consequences of stigmatizing language in nursing notes: proof of concept and pilot study
Dr. Lorrain Thirsk, Dr. Sarah Moore, Dr. Reidar Hagtvedt, Dr. Venise Bryan
Healthcare providers' bias has been identified as a factor that leads to patient safety issues and poor-quality patient care. While many cognitive biases impact judgment and decision-making in healthcare, implicit bias is particularly important as it
... Read morePrevalence, predictors, and consequences of stigmatizing language in nursing notes: proof of concept and pilot study
Healthcare providers' bias has been identified as a factor that leads to patient safety issues and poor-quality patient care. While many cognitive biases impact judgment and decision-making in healthcare, implicit bias is particularly important as it can lead to stigmatization and discrimination of patients based on their racial/ethnic identities, socioeconomic status, age, health condition, and physical appearance. To examine implicit bias in nursing practice, researchers are examining the narrative notes from a hospital record to answer the following research question: What are the predictors, prevalence, and consequences of stigmatizing language in nursing notes? This project uses Amazon Web Services to access the MIMIC-III database, which is a free, de-identified database of critical care unit admissions from the United States. The team uses AWS Athena, SQL, and an S3 Bucket for storage.
Identities Under Threat? Examining Police Identity Work Following the Launch of a D&I Action Plan
For this project, researchers are investigating how members of a large North American law enforcement organization made sense of public allegations of sexual harassment against female employees and the organization’s response. Researchers are examining organizational identity threats and how employees reacted to these threats. Tools used in this project include Comprehend, Translate, Transcribe, and QuickSight.
Data Management Solutions for Non-Profit Organizations: Piloting Partnerships between Community Agencies and Post-Secondary Institutions
This project successfully pilots REDCap at Athabasca University. REDCap is now available to other IDEA Lab projects and researchers at AU.
Using data analytics to investigate the effectiveness of the mobile version of an educational game considering users' behaviour, performance and usage of the game
Dr. Sabine Graf, Dr. Maiga Chang
Educational games can improve people's skills in a fun and effective way. These games are increasingly played on mobile devices rather than desktop computers. Moving from a desktop-based user interface design to a mobile design isn’t an easy task.
... Read moreUsing data analytics to investigate the effectiveness of the mobile version of an educational game considering users' behaviour, performance and usage of the game
Educational games can improve people's skills in a fun and effective way. These games are increasingly played on mobile devices rather than desktop computers. Moving from a desktop-based user interface design to a mobile design isn’t an easy task. It needs to be done properly to be effective and attractive for users - but if done successfully, it can attract more users and, in the case of educational games, can help more users learn particular skills. In this project, the team aims to investigate the effectiveness of a mobile version of the educational game OMEGA+ by applying data analytics techniques to investigate users' behaviour, performance and usage of the game. They will be using QuickSight and EC2.
Interoperability between LMS and OER for Adaptive Learning
Dr. Fuhua (Oscar) Lin, Mr. Hongxin Yan
Both adaptive learning (AL) and open educational resources (OER) are innovations for addressing cost, quality, and access challenges. AL is about how to teach, and OER refers to what to teach and learn. In this project, researchers will develop and
... Read moreInteroperability between LMS and OER for Adaptive Learning
Both adaptive learning (AL) and open educational resources (OER) are innovations for addressing cost, quality, and access challenges. AL is about how to teach, and OER refers to what to teach and learn. In this project, researchers will develop and test an LTI-enabled adaptive quizmaster and a set of Neo4j APIs which integrate LMSs, Adaptive Quizmaster, and a simple domain model of computing and open educational repository (OER) for online education.
Automatic Answering Service for Coronavirus Question
This project focuses on a Summary Generation engine designed and built to automatically generate answers for user questions, pulling information from CORD-19, an open data set that contains more than 500,000 scholarly articles about COVID-19,
... Read moreAutomatic Answering Service for Coronavirus Question
This project focuses on a Summary Generation engine designed and built to automatically generate answers for user questions, pulling information from CORD-19, an open data set that contains more than 500,000 scholarly articles about COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and related coronaviruses. This project uses multiple tools, including Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), AWS Comprehend’s Keyphrase Extraction and Syntax Analysis API, and Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3).
Updated June 20, 2024 by Digital & Web Operations (web_services@athabascau.ca)