Explorer of Technology, Art, Music, & The Everyday
Hi all – The 2023 University of Regina Engineering Project Day is fast approaching! This free and open-to-the-public event is on Saturday, April 1 from 8:30 am – 4:30 pm in the Education Building at the University of Regina.
Please see the Software Systems Engineering (SSE) Project Day schedule.
I hope you can make it out!
Engineering Project Day, our annual engineering capstone class where students take on a 2-semester project is fast approaching. This year it’s happening on April 1, 2023, no April fools’ joke…ha. Visible in the pic above is our Software Engineering students in action, practicing their trade show displays for the big upcoming day! It was an awesome time seeing our students come into their own and show of their hard work thus far. Students were also able to gather some last-minute feedback and comments from their student colleagues and software faculty too!
That’s April 1st folks at the University of Regina (Education Building). It is a free all-day event for the public starting at 8:30 am. More details to follow
2022 was an interesting year. The world started opening back up, which after 2 years in isolation, was exciting and scary all at the same time.
My teaching evolved into something different, with my teaching philosophy changed in a way I didn’t think it ever would. The changes largely due to our forced COVID experiences of the past few years has me thinking in new and exciting ways that I am wanting to continue to explore from the lens of how best to support my students but also myself and other educators (from the perspective of Mepham’s matrix of autonomy, fairness, well-being – an idea carried over from my PhD days). Regardless, I’m excited to continue the journey of how best I can support the future software designers and developers of the world. Indeed some of it is trial and error but I am thankful for my students who, even though at times are forced to come along for the ride with me as I teach core and required classes, nonetheless come along and provide me with open and honest feedback along the way. Engineering students really are a great bunch to hang out with throughout my days!
I attended my first academic conference since coming on board with the Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Regina in 2017. Wrote two peer-reviewed and accepted papers to boot! The conference – CEEA-ACEG’s (Canadian Engineering Education Association) annual event – this year it was at York University in Toronto – my first conference since my PhD days. The conference was ever so fun as I got to link up with like-minded educators in engineering and science. Folks met over Zoom over the last few years but it was nice to connect with them in-person. The CEEA folks are so inspiring and I am glad to have decided to be attached in some way to the community.
I received official recognition at work for my experiential and reflective-based teaching practices and got to meet others who also demonstrated interesting and unique teaching practices who also received similar recognition as well. Even more crazy was I got a certificate to highlight my work as well as attend an event where I got to meet and shake the hand of our new university president and our new dean of engineering. I have realized I am thankful and grateful for having a gig that officially recognizes folks who take the time to go outside the box and take initiative to explore new ways of exploring and honing their craft in a safe-to-fall way (Kudos to Dr. Alec Couros for creating these fantastic teaching recognitions). My old gig did this too, they just took more of a fail-safe approach to it all – a kind of “ya explore away, but if the shit hits the fan, the fun (might) need(s) to be over.” Having said this, I am also ever so grateful for my past experiences too as without key folks giving this crazy guy a little leeway and flexibility to be crazy and creative I wouldn’t be who I am today (i.e. super thankful for the Jacky Hoffert’s, Cindy Ikola’s, Shannon Waugh’s, Chris Zimmer’s and Wilbour Craddock’s of the world)
Pippin, Nova, and I went through a rather scary event where Pippin almost lost his life due to a bloated stomach. Gladly he is back to his normal and annoying, but super awesome self. He really is our world and we love this little big guy ever so much!
COVID finally hit Nova and I and let me tell ya, it was an experience I would have rather done without but seemed inevitable. As we near the close of December we are both COVID-clear but I am still experiencing some long-COVID-type symptoms – the dry coughing, brain fog, and sinus fun. Hopefully, this clears soon. I was one of the unfortunates who during COVID lost all sense of taste and smell along with all of the other stomach and sinus fun. Thankful for vaccines though as maybe it could have been a worse time
I also re-started the gym thing after a 2-year hiatus due to COVID. This has had a really positive impact on me mentally and physically as I try to get back on track to having more healthy internals (I’ll likely always be a big dude as food is life, but I can tighten up the internals indeed). Also if I can get rid of some of those external “COVID cupcakes” mostly seen around the stomach region (haha), gained throughout COVID, even better! 🙂
Overall, reflecting back on 2022 – hills and valleys aside – another fine year! Stay tuned for my albums of the year coming soon!
This past month (in June 2022) I was able to present both my papers at the annual/2022 Canadian Engineering education Association (CEEA) conference @ York University in Toronto. Below are links to my papers.
The first paper above, “Facilitating Cross & Beyond Course Project-Based Software Engineering Learning Experiences,” details a process I have been exploring since being hired as a lecturer in the Software Systems Engineering (SSE) program, the general premise is the exploration of a process for educators, students, and industry collaborators to build on and continue iterating on the good work students produce within project-based courses. The paper discusses a learning experience that took place in 2018 with my graduate and undergraduate students, and my previous place of work, eHealth Saskatchewan. I’ve since been exploring the use of the process in other courses as well throughout the years, facilitating successful and/or interesting collaborations between students and industry partners (particularly with the Regina Fire & Protective Services, Internation Association of Business Communicators (Regina branch), the Regina Food Bank, and most recently the Regina Mandolin Orchestra so far). I hope to continue exploring this process this Winter as I engage in a new collaboration with Luther College’s Nonprofit & Voluntary Studies Network in future class offerings
The second paper above, “An Exploration in Facilitating Learning Experiences Towards Inspiring Responsible Software Engineers,” details a learning experience I facilitated for undergraduate and graduate SSE students throughout 2021 that had students immerse themselves in exploring (and software engineering) solutions in support of education for sustainable development towards one (or many) of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. It is my hope to continue exploring this in future course offerings as well.
The 2022 CEEA conference was really amazing. It was my first time attending the conference. I learned so much and connected with so many excellent folks from all across Canada doing great work in Engineering (and STEAM – Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) education. Plans are currently underway for a paper(s) submission to the CEEA 2023 event which will be at UBC/Kelowna. Super excited!
With that, it is my plan over the next month and a bit to take some time off to recoup and rest up, coming back strong in mid-to-late August 2022 to prep for the Fall 2022 term! I am looking forward to taking a much-needed break as I reflect on the past couple of years, being thrust into COVID response back in March 2020, seemingly working non-stop until now (Summer 2022) trying to keep my head above water and trying my best to evolve my teaching while providing the best possible learning experiences to my students. I’ve learned a lot over the last little bit and hope to continue to explore, as although COVID wasn’t really a great thing that happened to us all and it really was a reactive “fly-by-the-seat-of-our-pants” response, I do think some good emerged from all of my crazy explorations and experiences (and this just might be the premise of my next CEEA paper #hint …haha 😉
Have a great summer all. If you do reach out please know I will be taking a break from it all and will respond when I can!
I was able to break out the Lego in my people-centred design software systems engineering class this week (ENSE 271), the last time being 2-3ish years ago due to Covid.
This activity was one I adapted/evolved from Stanford’s d.school to get SSE learners in the mindset of design thinking for their class project. Fun times!! Learners seemed to really enjoy the experience. I’ll have to do a write-up on it all in the near future – maybe for next year’s CEEA event!
The 2022 RCE Saskatchewan Annual Awards for Achievement in Education for Sustainable Development is happening on May 4, 2022. As director of the Humanity-Centred Computer Systems Engineering Graduate & Undergraduate Projects & Research Lab, I am pleased to announce that my students and I were successful in obtaining two awards for our efforts in the projects
As the event is in-person and being live-streamed we hope you can check it out!
For more information see here:
Hi all – Apologies for the late notice. This semester at the uni has breezed on by (where in the world did the time go?!?) – was in Zoom and in-person and in Zoom oh my – my poor brain! 
This Saturday, April 9th we are scheduled to have our first in-person Engineering Project Day event at the University of Regina since COVID graced us with its presence. Indeed, it is an in-person event and given COVID is still a thing, masking is a requirement as per the University’s masking policy. The event starts at 8:30 am and runs until 3:30 pm and is located on the main level of the Education Building. Admission is free! …and I know this question is likely to crop up – unfortunately, due to logistics, we will not be web streaming the event this year (I’m also sad but please know we do hope to explore this in future Engineering Project Day events).
There are cool projects from all engineering programs, but biased as I am, like toats mcgoats super cool-beans and awesomeo projects in software systems engineering this year (like in all years…ha 
). Hope you can make it out! https://www2.uregina.ca/projectday/
Over the past year and a bit, I have been facilitating a learning experience for both my undergraduate and graduate software systems engineering (SSE) students. The learning experience involves an in-depth, independent exploration of solutions in support of the United Nation’s (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
The general questions I am exploring is can the now-and-future (software) engineer be inspired to contribute to positive local and global change? Can this be accomplished by immersing learners in a “safe-fall”, guided learning exploration on the engineering of computer technologies in support of the UN’s SDGs? My wife would tell me these are all run-on sentences, and for surely they are. My writing is a work-in-progress- HA! That all being said, I want to share with you brief 1-3 minute solution commercials on my students’ creations from the Fall 2021 (undergraduate class) and Spring 2021 (graduate class) where students explored exactly this. I, for one, have been inspired by the outcomes of my students’ explorations. I hope you are as well.
As an aside: Look for a supporting publication as part of the 2022 Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA) event.
(Undergraduate SSEers. Alphabetical by project codename)
Krupal’s “HealthHack” app to support people’s quest for healthy lives (Link leads to his commercial in GitHub)
(Graduate SSEers. Alphabetical by student first name)
Helly’s “Covid-Support” app to help companies manage COVID exposures (Link leads to his commercial in GitHub).
I know there is a lot to unpack here. That said, all of these projects and student explorations give me hope! I also know that many students learned a lot about the UN SDGs and were/are inspired to go forth and be awesome – positively advancing society for us all!
A pause for reflection from Ethan Zuckerman: “The metaverse isn’t about building perfect virtual escape hatches—it’s about holding a mirror to our own broken, shared world” from: https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2021/10/facebook-metaverse-was-always-terrible/620546/
As we continue to explore variations on the metaverse (variations of online digital spaces), which I think are inevitable, and as we inch even closer to a near Ready Player One existence, my question is where do/can we go from here? Can #softwareengineers & #computerscience practitioners make a difference? I think, maybe yes?
Towards this, my students have been exploring (PDSA) solutions in the realm of providing immersive experiences around the UN’s 17 SDGs and it has been interesting to see how my students are providing opportunities for folks to “[hold] a mirror to our own broken, shared world” while also providing knowledge growing opportunities embedded within their computer system creations to allow humanity to positively progress forward. I look forward to sharing my student’s creations from this current term in a future post (here’s my post about my student’s creations in a past class).
As I continue to explore this idea it is my hope that when my students are unleashed into the world that they take with them a sense of duty in the spirit of Eli Pariser’s idea of being responsible/ethical digital urban planners – those that seek to create palaces for the people where we all can all learn and grow in a more human(e) way.
Candace and I recently presented at the 2021 Research Impact Canada (RIC) annual conference (http://researchimpact.ca), discussing our collaborative explorations between the Regina Fire and Protective Services and undergraduate students in one of my Software Systems Engineering classes (People-Centred Design) at the University of Regina to engineer modern software applications for fire safety education. Enjoy!
Abstract: Over the past years, Regina Fire & Protective Services has provided an interactive activity, delivered by firefighters, designed to lead kindergarten to grade three students through the components of a family fire escape plan. While the original intent of this fire education program is still valid and necessary, the original design has become obsolete and lacks relevance with current technology and communication tools. In collaborating with the University of Regina Software Systems Engineering program, a modern technology was designed and developed by post-secondary students to evolve the teaching tool, saving lives by partnering education and the latest technology and engineering possibilities.