What is it about some communities that allows them to manage a pandemic and return to normalcy faster than others?

A UWindsor team led by engineering professor Edwin Tam will delve into that question with sweeping research into municipalities’ experiences under COVID-19. The research team will examine demographics, governance, infrastructure, and services to create a template to help Windsor and Essex County and other cities prepare for future pandemics.

“We hypothesize that specific municipal characteristics enhance a community’s resiliency,” said Dr. Tam. “Our overall goal is to assess if there are physical characteristics, demographic profiles, infrastructure, policies, and practices specific to a community that enhance its ability to withstand and overcome a pandemic.”

Put simply, he said: “We want to know what it is about a city that helps it combat the spread.”

Tam, who specializes in research in environmental engineering, has partnered with fellow engineering professor Tirupati Bolisetti and math and statistics professors Mohamed Belalia and Myron Hlynka on the one-year project. Law professor Anneke Smit, founding director of the Windsor Law Centre for Cities, will bring her expertise about governance issues as another partner on the research.

The team will be looking at all manner of municipal services and policies. It will examine the overlap of pandemic response and other emergency or public health planning, Tam said. In heat emergencies, for example, people would normally be directed to shopping malls, community centres, or municipal pools. With facilities closed during the pandemic, how are communities responding?

Using flooding as another example, Tam asked, “How do you deal with climate change during a pandemic?”

The team will use data on municipalities collected by the Canadian Urban Institute, a national platform for people interested in building better cities.

Tam said his team also hopes to compare Windsor to Detroit.

The severity of the impacts varies by country and by city, with city characteristics such as size, population, and density playing a role, Tam said. “However, these alone cannot explain all differences, and similar regions or cities have not experienced the impacts equally.”

He said the project will be an opportunity for students to do research. He intends to have the team’s analysis completed early next year.

Tam has been awarded a $5,000 grant to begin collecting data and doing interviews. The money comes from UWindsor’s Office of the Vice-President of Research and Innovation and the WE-Spark Health Institute, a research partnership involving the University of Windsor, Windsor Regional Hospital, Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare, and St. Clair College.

It is one of 21 local COVID-related projects WE-Spark is supporting through its COVID-19 Rapid Response grant program.

—Sarah Sacheli

When the School of Computer Science launches its Master of Science Artificial Intelligence Stream in Fall 2020, five members of the first cohort will bring with them a total of $87,500 in scholarship money from the Vector Institute for Artificial Intelligence.

“To receive five scholarships in the first year this stream is offered gives Windsor recognition as a destination to study AI and credibility in the industry,” says Ziad Kobti, director of the School of Computer Science.

“With recognition from Vector, we can recruit the best students — they don’t need to go to elsewhere to get an excellent higher-level education that will afford them employment opportunities as AI experts in a growing industry.”

Computer science professor and graduate chair, Alioune Ngom, says the program will introduce students to advanced topics in AI and related subjects and applications, as well as to new technologies that are in high demand for computer professionals in industry.

“By the end of this program, graduates will have a comprehensive understanding of leading-edge AI techniques and will be able to apply this knowledge to solve real-world problems,” says Dr. Ngom.

The stream also offers an optional co-op placement. Ngom says students can go anywhere in the world for these positions.

“This will put them ahead of the curve when they compete globally with other AI graduates for employment in government and private industry as machine learning scientists, consultants, data scientists, and software engineers,” he says.

Dr. Kobti says although the AI stream is new this year and has no graduates yet, the School of Computer Science is already graduating highly qualified individuals in the field.

“Earlier this year, my former student Kumaran Ragunathan (MSc 2020) called me just two weeks after his thesis defense to say he got a job as an associate data scientist at Quicken Loans Rocket Innovation Studio. This new stream will just continue this successfully trend.”

The 2020-21 Vector Scholarship in Artificial Intelligence awards $17,500 per recipient for one year of full-time study at a Vector accredited institution. The university’s new professional stream is a research thesis-based program. The five UWindsor scholarship recipients are: Sheena Hora, Vishakha Gautam, Shuvendu Roy, Nazia Siddiqui, and Farzaneh Jouyandeh.

—Sara Elliott

Nia Lyric Symone Thompson is fascinated with the promotion and selling of products. She hopes that participating in the RBC EPIC Founders program will help her make a success of her startup, Lyric Symone & Co.

The company will produce a subscription beauty box and curate collections of jewelry and organic beauty products.

“My business is a seed for others to grow. It’s important to me to create, empower, and maintain a platform to promote other small businesses,” says Thompson.

Her market research indicates that competitors focus on showcasing larger brands, but Thompson intends to foster innovation and individuality among suppliers.

“In turn, niche audiences will be exposed to products and diverse brands they wouldn’t have sought out themselves,” she says.

The Entrepreneurship Practice and Innovation Centre (EPICentre) hosts the founders program, a 12-week startup accelerator for students and recent graduates who want to turn their ideas into businesses. Participants receive a stipend of up to $6,000 that can be used as seed funding, attend workshops and seminars, and receive one-on-one mentorship.

Learn more on the EPICentre website.

Making pesto is a delicious way to preserve basil, says Paolo Vasapolli.

Executive chef in Food and Catering Services, he suggests a recipe that will last weeks if properly refrigerated, and longer if frozen.

The condiment is a classic on pasta but also works as a dip or sandwich spread, bringing the taste of summer garden herbs to your table.

Fresh Basil Pesto

Ingredients

• 4 cups (1 L) lightly packed fresh basil leaves
• ½ cup (125 mL) walnuts, lightly toasted
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1½ tsp (7 mL) coarse sea salt
• 1 cup (250 mL) freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano
• 1 cup (250 mL) extra-virgin olive oil

Instructions

Traditionally, crushing all ingredients with a mortar and pestle results in the best pesto, Vasapolli says. Mash the garlic and salt in a mortar until it’s the texture of a paste. Add basil, crushing the leaves until they are incorporated into the paste. Slowly add the oil, nuts, and cheese.

The chef offers two alternative methods:

1. For a smoother consistency, chop basil, walnuts, garlic, and salt in a food processor, then pulse in the cheese and slowly drizzle in the olive oil.
2. Chopping by hand yields a coarser texture. Cut together the basil, walnuts, and garlic on a large board, transfer to a jar and add the cheese and olive oil, finishing with salt and fresh cracked black pepper. Seal the jar and shake well to mix it all the ingredients together.

To store for several weeks, top with olive oil so that the pesto is completely covered and refrigerate.

Find more recipes — as well as a place to submit your own — on the Healthy Eating website.