Sixteen graduates and undergraduates from the School of Computer Science accompanied Dr. Shafaq Khan to attend 2024 Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing Conference (CAN-CWIC), in Toronto.

Students got the opportunity to be inspired by keynote speeches, learn from lightning talks, participate in the career fair and engage with leaders and peers in the computing field. One of the participating students,  Esther Umoh, wrote a blog post about her experience where says attending the CAN CWIC was a memorable and inspiring experience.

“The conference featured insightful keynotes from visionary speakers, lightning talks, ample networking opportunities, and a vibrant career fair with professionals from leading companies like CGI, RBC, TD, CN, AWS, Electronic Arts, D2L, Canada Life, and many others,” says Umoh.

“CAN CWIC provided an incredible platform for connecting with those driving inclusion and innovation in technology. Traveling with peers from the University of Windsor and Sinclair College made the experience even more impactful, deepening our shared passion for tech.”

Key highlights included keynote speeches from leaders like Natalie Ripp, Senior Director of RBC Digital Cheque Processing, who embodied resilience and confidence, and Christina Fung, Senior Vice President of Consulting Services at CGI, whose perspectives on "AI for Good" shed new light on technology’s role in society.

“Workshops on career development and AI applications, along with sessions addressing real-world tech challenges, provided me with actionable knowledge to further my aspirations,” she says.  

The career fair offered an incredible opportunity to explore job opportunities and learn about the innovative work these organizations are doing to advance technology and support diversity and inclusion within their teams.

“This conference was a powerful reminder of the strong, supportive community working to overcome challenges in tech. The knowledge, connections, and inspiring stories I gained have left a lasting impression.”

Alumna Mackenzie Habash (BSc. Hons 2021) credits the critical thinking skills she gained as an economics major for her career success.

“I found my honours economics degree was a great catalyst to look at a problem wholistically to try and solve it,” says Habash.

“It gave me the skills to have good financial acumen to look at a problem and be able to come up with a multitude of solutions – whether it be technical or business solutions.”

While still an undergraduate, she started an internship with Invest WindsorEssex at their Automobility and Innovation Centre. After graduation she was hired as a grant administrator to help startups through grants funded by the provincial and federal governments.

"My main responsibility was writing a grant proposal that secured funding for the OVIN (Ontario Vehicle Innovation Network) Regional Technology Development Site (RTDS). We received funding to deliver 14 different programs and services to automotive technology startups across the province. After the grant was awarded, I moved into a program management role, where I oversaw seven of those programs."

“Every day brings something new, and that’s what makes this job so exciting. There’s always a flow of interesting innovations and projects coming through, which keeps things fresh and engaging.”

In June 2024 Habash was promoted to senior program manager. In that position, she runs the Windsor-Essex RTDS and the federal government initiatives and programs. 

“My job is to meet with companies one-on-one, learn about their businesses, and anticipate what their biggest business problems will be,” she says. “Then we see how our RTDS engineers can generate solutions to those problems.”

Within the centre, Habash says Invest WindsorEssex offers the largest publicly accessible virtual reality (VR) CAVE in Canada.

“If you think of a VR headset, it is like that but a room you can walk into where we can create a digital twin and take a physical product or a process to put it in a virtual environment,” says Habash.

“This allows multiple people to walk into a room, see that product and be able to collaborate in real time.”

In her role, she says the mathematical modelling she completed during her economics degree comes in handy when building programs or looking at financial balancing budgets and getting the maximum support she can for startups.

"Because of my science background at UWindsor, I developed the ability to collaborate effectively with engineers and other highly skilled professionals, allowing me to engage in complex technical and business discussions and craft innovative solutions to their challenges."

As a fourth-year student, Habash was a MySci mentor for newer undergraduates, as well as a Students Offering Support tutor. But her real passion was travel and she thanks UWindsor for that opportunity because she learned about these trips through an on-campus information session.

“I got to travel, see amazing places, and volunteer for projects in Africa, Asia and South America,” she says.

She says travelling was not just a highlight of her degree, but it also got her hired at Invest WindsorEssex.  

“Not many have lived in the Amazon for three weeks building sanitation tanks for the tribe that lives there – it made my resume stand out and taught me life lessons.” 

“When I talk to students at UWindsor, I always tell them that taking five years to finish my degree was the best decision I made. Switching my major gave me an extra year to travel and an extra summer to do my internship at Invest WindsorEssex, which really kick-started my career.”

With years of data and a wealth of publications, Tanya Basok, associate dean of research in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, has become an authority on the experiences of migrant agricultural workers and has leveraged her research knowledge as an expert witness in court cases fighting to protect their rights.

“Many workers fear that if they complain about working conditions or treatment by employers, they will lose their livelihoods,” Dr. Basok says. “Social science researchers can use data to draw attention to these issues and leverage their power to help vulnerable workers.”

To ensure her testimony focuses on research and data rather than her personal beliefs, she undergoes mock cross-examinations in preparation for court appearances.

“It can be quite alarming to face an aggressive government lawyer, especially ones who depict you as a radical activist and refuse to recognize the validity of your research findings,” she says.

Basok is optimistic about the role social scientists can play in protecting the rights of marginalized groups and addressing social issues.

“Researchers have within their reach the power to engage with real-world problems and furnish evidence-based research that has the potential to influence policy and bring about broader social change,” she says.

Learn more in the full article, “Translating research to legal evidence,” published in the Research and Innovation in Action report.

The UWill Discover Sustainable Futures call for proposals is now open.

UWindsor students can submit proposals on the UWill Discover Brightspace Organization. Undergraduate and graduate students in any discipline can apply to present their student initiatives, creative work, research, research reflections, and more up to Feb. 2, 2025.

Students can submit proposals for posters, oral presentations, business pitches, podcasts, and creative works.

UWill Discover is a year-long project that includes pre-conference workshops, mentorship opportunities, a writing retreat for participants, and the chance to compete for a spot in the UWill Discover journal and the UWill Discover Model United Nations team!

"The UWill Discover conference offers several interactive events, presentation opportunities, and networking events,” says project lead Tim Brunet, co-ordinator of the Outstanding Scholars program and student leadership in the Student Success and Leadership Centre.

UWill Discover is supported by offices across campus. The UWill Discover Sustainable Futures website provides details on submitting to the conference. Send questions to uwilldiscover@uwindsor.ca.

The University of Windsor is proud to announce a new academic collaboration with the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT Bombay) through a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).

This partnership underscores our commitment to global engagement, academic excellence, and innovation, creating impactful opportunities for students, researchers, and faculty members.

Key Highlights of the Collaboration:

• Exchange Opportunities: Facilitating the exchange of students, scholars, and professional staff to foster cross-cultural learning and academic development.
  Joint Research Initiatives: Promoting collaborative research, shared publications, and supervising joint projects that address global challenges.

“This partnership is a testament to UWindsor’s growing international reputation and its support for forging strong research-related community and industry engagement and partnerships at both local and global scales,” says Dr. Shanthi Johnson, vice-president of Research and Innovation.

Reflecting on the partnership, Dr. Chris Busch, associate vice-president of Enrolment Management and senior international officer, shared, “As the University of Windsor continues to rise in global rankings, climbing 100 spots in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, partnerships like this with IIT Bombay—one of the top institutions in Asia and globally—demonstrate our unwavering commitment to fostering world-class academic collaboration and expanding opportunities for our students and researchers.”

This agreement exemplifies UWindsor’s vision to be globally connected and locally engaged, creating transformative pathways for innovation, research, and student success.

"Find someone doing what you aspire to do and surround yourself with it," advises Clark Wiebe (MBA 2018), who worked his way up to become a key leader at Coachwood Group, a Windsor-based portfolio of businesses including Canadian Protein, Coachwood Capital, Coachwood Golf & Country Club, and its most recent acquisition, BioSteel.

Wiebe joined Coachwood Group as a sales representative right out of university and has since climbed the ranks to chief operating officer, where he serves as founder Dan Crosby’s "right-hand man."

"My role is kind of the glue between Dan, who is a hyper-ambitious and creative CEO, and carrying out those ideas," Wiebe explained. "With multiple businesses running, I act as the middle person between him and every department, making sure we turn his ideas into realities."

Wiebe’s journey started with a direct message to Canadian Protein’s founder on social media. He was drawn to the company by Crosby’s entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen.

"I thought being around that would be valuable, and I knew I wanted to learn from that, and now this has turned into a long-term career," Wiebe said.

Founded in 2011, the group recently expanded by acquiring BioSteel, a sports beverage brand that had filed for bankruptcy. Within six months, it became profitable, Wiebe said.

"When I started, we had around 20 employees, maybe fewer," he noted. "Now we have close to 150, and by the end of 2025, we’ll likely be closer to 200-250. We’re growing fast."

Wiebe noted that in the early days, it felt like the "new kids on the block," but now Canadian Protein is seen as a major player in the industry, securing big contracts with companies like Costco.

This rapid growth is something Wiebe attributes to the unique mentality of Windsor-Essex locals, many of whom are University of Windsor graduates.

"I feel like Windsorites have a unique mentality that’s incredibly valuable in business. It’s a scrappy, workhorse mindset—an attitude of ‘I’m going to get this done no matter what,’" he explained. "When combined with a solid education, it creates exceptionally valuable employees."

Wiebe has maintained strong ties with UWindsor, with Canadian Protein becoming an official partner of Lancers Football last year, providing protein powders for the smoothie bar Natural! in the Toldo Lancer Centre, and collaborating with Odette students on a one-day consulting project.

"We gave an entire pitch of BioSteel and some of the new acquisition problems we had faced and tasked them with coming up with recommendations to help solve some of the big issues," he said.

Since then, Wiebe said they’ve taken on two MBA interns. In total, Coachwood Group has employed more than 50 university students, both part-time and full-time.

As an alum, Wiebe says he knows how much he gained from the program, pointing to strategy classes as particularly impactful.

"It teaches you how to look at a big business problem—something complex that impacts a lot of people and is influenced by so many factors—and take a systematic approach to solving it," Wiebe recalled. "You figure out how to come up with recommendations and roll them out over time. Now, I’ve got so many examples to pull from."

Wiebe often draws from what he learned at UWindsor when facing challenges at Canadian Protein.

"Even as our company’s grown and we’ve faced new problems, I’ll think, ‘Oh yeah, I remember hearing about a company while in school that had a similar issue. Our class recommended X, Y, and Z, so maybe we can try that here.’"

Looking back on his career journey, Wiebe offers a few key pieces of advice for those looking to follow a similar path: find someone doing what you aspire to, get creative in your job search, and keep pushing forward, learning from each experience.

"Businesses often make decisions quickly, and rejection doesn’t always mean the end," Wiebe said. "Persistence and perseverance are traits that companies value, so don’t be discouraged after a setback. Some of our best hires have stood out because they got creative in reaching out to us, showcasing their skills, and finding unique ways to connect. That persistence and initiative can make a real difference."

Dennis Otieno, an MSc candidate from the Lake Victoria basin in Kenya, is gaining hands-on experience with the Laurentian Great Lakes by contributing to water quality monitoring in the Detroit River, a connecting channel of the Great Lakes.

The project is part of the Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) connecting channels monitoring program. Sampling sites along the connecting channels of the Great Lakes have been established and are continually monitored to evaluate the year-round distribution of nutrients and suspended sediments transported between lakes.

Otieno, who is co-advised by GLIER researchers Drs. Ken Drouillard and Mike McKay, coordinates the sampling and sample processing for two of the ECCC autosamplers located at GLIER. One is located on the dock behind GLIER, while the other is inside GLIER, sampling water from an existing intake.

These two monitoring sites join established monitoring sites on the St. Clair River, Niagara River and St. Lawrence River. They are the first sampling sites established since 1987.

Evaluating nutrient loading and eutrophication in the Great Lakes Basin is part of ECCC’s commitment to the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (GLWQA).

The establishment of long-term sampling locations on the Detroit River to monitor nutrients, major ions and other water quality measurements will advance this commitment and address potential concerns exacerbated by a rapidly changing climate.

Because of its mild microclimate, Windsor-Essex has developed a well-deserved reputation for excellence in wine making, but not all local vintners have access to the cutting-edge scientific technology that can take their product to the next level.

Enter the University of Windsor Agri-Food and Beverage lab: a newly established and globally unique facility under the supervision of chemistry professor John Trant.

The lab offers both an experiential learning opportunity and a service for winemakers, brewers, and distillers in the region.

“Along with standard measurements of wine content like alcohol, sulfur, and sugar, we are offering several services to our local industry partners,” Dr. Trant says. “Processes like heat and cold stabilization that will show unstable grape proteins which present as a cloudy wine or naturally occurring tartaric acids that fall out of solution forming ‘wine diamonds,’ which the average consumer does not want to see in their wine. We also offer custom research solutions to new problems where there are no off-the-shelf solutions.”

Students working in the lab participate fully in the work, handling samples, running machines, and understanding analyses, allowing them to grow as researchers and giving them in-demand skills.

Learn more in the full article, “Science in support of local business,” published in the Research and Innovation in Action report.

The University of Windsor will host a memorial to honour five members of its community who lost their lives when Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down in 2020.

The commemoration will take place Wednesday, Jan. 8, from 3 to 4 p.m. in the CAW Student Centre Commons and is open to all.

The memorial will honour doctoral student of civil engineering Pedram Jadidi; biology research assistant Samira Bashiri and her spouse Hamidreza Setareh Kokab, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering; and civil engineering doctoral student Zahra Naghibi and her spouse Mohammad Abbaspour Ghadi.

The five were among 176 people killed when the plane they were on was shot down during liftoff from Tehran.