Supporting Student Engagement in Research

convocationAn essential part of SFU’s vision for an institution that is student-centered, research-driven and community-engaged is to provide increased opportunities for students to obtain early, hands-on experience in research.

The Vice-President, Research lobbies the federal government for increased support for student research and training, and works with SFU International to expand opportunities for research exchanges with leading companies and institutions worldwide.

The following programs support student engagement in research, as showcased in the accompanying student profiles.

NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Awards Program
NSERC's USRA program aims to stimulate interest in the natural sciences and engineering, and to encourage undergraduate students to undertake graduate studies and pursue a career in these fields. There will be 68 NSERC USRA awards granted to SFU students in 2011-12. The value of the award is $4,500 over one semester for a full-time student. For information on how to apply for these programs, please contact the SFU Dean of Graduate Studies Office.

  • Vladimir Avram, Computing Science

    • The USRA program was pivotal in helping me make the decision to continue on to a graduate research career, and it gave me the exposure to the people and research to make that a reality.

      Vladimir is interested in intelligent systems and complex systems modelling as well as formal methods. He is also interested in interdisciplinary work, and applying computational methods to biology research problems.

      The research project was on designing a framework to bring formal systems engineering methods to decision support systems design. The application domain was the field of situation analysis for battle-space and emergency response support.

VPR Undergraduate Student Research Awards (VPR USRA)
The Vice-President, Research has instituted a pilot program for the internal support of undergraduate student research. Modeled after the NSERC URSA program, the VPR USRAs extend undergraduate student support to those not normally eligible under NSERC (e.g., international students), and to those students in the social sciences and humanities where external support does not exist. For more information, please contact the SFU Dean of Graduate Studies Office.

  • Nicholas Chesworth, Archaeology

    • Supervisor: Brian Hayden

      My wife has been working and paying all the bills while I've been in school, so I was delighted to be able to contribute something, and having it related to my field of interest was a real bonus!

      Archaeology undergraduate Nicholas Chesworth is in his final year at SFU. Chesworth's research was so good Hayden hired him to continue working for him outside the USRA program. In addition Chesworth just submitted a proposal for a SSHRC grant, which will help fund his Masters studies under SFU Archaeologist Rudy Reimer. He is working on how First Nations peoples cultivated and modified native plants as well as other complex horticultural activities of local aboriginal peoples. When asked how he felt about the USRA, Chesworth said,

      Project Description: Studying the paleoethnobotany of first nations around the Lillooet area.

  • Maeve Cyr, Psychology

    • Supervisor: Shannon Zaitsoff

      The opportunity to learn while being a full time employee at SFU has been invaluable, as this experience has granted me the motivation as well as the funds to further my education in the field of psychology!

      Maeve is currently pursuing an Honours Degree in Psychology, with the intention to pursue further education in Clinical Psychology. She is interested in various aspects of mental health, and is particularly fascinated by issues regarding the stigma of mental illness and early interventions for adolescents and young adults with mental disorders. Maeve says, "The opportunity to learn while being a full time employee at SFU has been invaluable, as this experience has granted me the motivation as well as the funds to further my education in the field of psychology."

      Maeve is spending Summer 2011 working with Dr. Zaitsoff to develop several studies for her lab in the Psychology Department. She has spent the bulk of her time researching the therapeutic alliance, or the relationship that develops between the therapist and his/her patient(s), and how it relates to the treatment of eating disorders. This has mainly involved conducting extensive literature reviews (i.e. to understand the 'therapeutic alliance' construct and to identify reliable and valid methods of assessing it), which are currently being summarized in a review article.

  • Chen Best Guo, Mathematics

    • Supervisor: Adam Oberman

      Despite occupying most of my leisure time and persisting with methods that might fail in the end, I have learned so much during this experience. It has encouraged me to embark on further academic research.

      Best is interested in studying the stochastic characters of both financial and actuarial qualities, and using stochastic processes to model practical problems.

      His USRA project is entitled, "Numerical solution and mathematical modelling of stochastic control problems arising in mathematical finance." Stochastic control plays an important role in dynamic portfolio optimization. Best mainly focused on PDE methods for solving path-dependent options, and numerical analysis for the finite difference scheme.

  • Natalie Harrison, Psychology

    • Supervisor: Alexander Chapman

      Some of the most important knowledge that I have gained through working on this research has come from the uncontrollable obstacles and errors that occur while conducting such a comprehensive study. The troubleshooting and problem solving skills that I have gained from this experience with the USRA program will be invaluable in my future research endeavours.

      Natalie will be graduating in October 2011 with a Bachelor of Arts Honours Degree with a major in psychology. After graduation, she plans to apply to clinical psychology programs in both Canada and the United States, with the ultimate goal of earning a Ph.D. in psychology and registering as a psychologist.

      Her USRA project involves investigating how people with a Borderline Personality Disorder diagnosis deal with emotions on a daily basis. She has had the opportunity to coordinate various aspects of this project, from recruitment to data cleaning and scoring.

  • Madeleine Hawkins, International Studies

    • Supervisor: Morten Jerven

      This experience has not only broadened my knowledge base, but it has also provided me with refined research, writing and analysis skills, preparing me well for my next academic pursuits. I value this experience greatly, as I don't believe that research positions should be exclusive to graduate students. The USRA presents an excellent opportunity for undergraduates to refine their interests and explore new ideas in a professional academic setting.

      Madeleine Hawkins is a 4th year undergraduate in the International Development, Economic and Environmental Issues stream. She hopes to continue her studies at the graduate level and to contribute towards innovative and effective policy change.

      Madeleine's USRA project is focused on the history of economic statistics in sub-Saharan Africa. Her tasks have included extensive research of historical records, economic data, and scholarly work.

  • Manal Abdur Rahman, Health Sciences

    • Supervisor: Zabrina Brumme

      The VPR-USRA award has enabled me to continue to pursue my interest in the field of HIV/AIDS research at SFU. It has specifically allowed me to go through the steps of designing a research project, problem-solving erroneous outputs, and producing objective results...the USRA award has been instrumental in aiding exposure to university research and understanding the scientific process.

      Manal is interested in pursing a career in medicine, so that she can help improve the quality of life in developing communities around the world.

      Superinfections are a form of coinfection which occur when an individual has been infected with one strain of HIV, developed an immune response towards that particular strain, and is then infected again with another strain. The purpose of this research was to investigate the number of superinfections among the Vancouver Injection Drug User Study participants who were HIV-negative at the start of the study, but subsequently acquired HIV.

    • CTEF Graduate Fellowships in the Humanities
    In 2009, 15 new $6250 graduate fellowships were created through the Community Trust Endowment Fund to support doctoral students in the Humanities. For information on how to apply for these programs, please contact the SFU Dean of Graduate Studies Office.

    • Debopam Das, Linguistics

      • Supervisor: Paul McFetridge and Maite Taboada

        The CTEF fellowship has provided me with great financial help in pursuing my research towards the completion of my PhD degree. I feel extremely honored to have received this award.

        Debopam completed his BA in English (2004) and MA in Linguistics (2006) from the University of Calcutta, India. After work as a lexicographer in India from 2007 to 2009, he joined the Ph.D. program at SFU. His research interests are in the areas of discourse analysis, computational linguistics, corpus linguistics and lexicography. In future, he would like to work as a computational linguist and contribute his skills to the development of multifarious linguistics resources in language technology.

        His doctoral dissertation will focus on the area of discourse analysis, specifically on the identification of different types of signalling devices that contribute to the realization of different discourse relations.

    • Christopher Ewart, English

      • Supervisor: Peter Dickinson

        The CTEF reaffirms the value of my research to encourage new inquiry and meaningful discourse around the cultural and pedagogical importance of disability and the equity of its people.

        Chris received the CTEF Doctoral Graduate Fellowship in the fall of 2010, which allowed him to focus on completing his comprehensive exams in modernism and disability studies, and on his research project "Not Until I Stand Up: Framing a Disability Theory of Value for Contemporary Narrative."

        Chris's critical and creative work is in the area of disability studies and theory, interrogating disability and normalcy in narrative and popular culture. His research and teaching interests include modern to contemporary literature, creative writing, film and rhetoric. In addition to producing journal articles, poetry and short fiction and speaking at conferences, he has written a play (Billy's Drums) and a novel (Miss Lamp, Coach House, 2006) that share cultural functions, fictions and personal experiences of diability with audiences.

        Chris is currently completing a second novel and researching post-doctoral opportunities. He plans to continue living, working, and teaching in the Lower Mainland.

    • Dominique Falls, Sociology/Anthropology

      • Supervisor: Barbara Mitchell

        Receiving the CTEF has been invaluable in allowing me to focus all of my time and energy on producing quality research. The CTEF has also eased the financial burden of travel – a necessary part of my research in small towns.

        Dominique entered the Ph.D. program in the fall of 2009. She holds a B.Sc. in Sociology and an M.A. in Human Kinetics (Sociology of Sport). Her research interests include sociology of sport, sociology of youth, and social/cultural geography. She is particularly interested in understanding the local contexts in which sports are experienced, given meaning, and understood. Her goals are to have a balanced career both in academia and in sport policy.

        Her Ph.D. research explores the ways in which organized youth sport is experienced by young people aged 16 to 18 in one small BC town. She is interested in the ways in which the organization of youth sport develops, perpetuates, and promotes certain meanings and how these meanings in turn inform the young athletes' experiences, behaviours and identities. Particular attention will also be paid to the role that road-trips and geographic mobility play in the negotiations of these experiences, identities and meanings. Having received funding from both SSHRC and Sport Canada, Dominique hopes to use this research to inform policy on organized youth sport in Canada.

    • David Gaertner, English

      • Supervisor: Sophie McCall

        The CTEF program has allowed me the time to properly research and develop my dissertation project. This support is invaluable for PhD students.

        Dave is currently working on his dissertation, entitled Beyond Truth: Materialist Approaches to Reconciliation in Canadian Literature and Social Theory. His research focuses on discourses of reconciliation, apology and forgiveness in Canadian literature and political practice. He has published work in Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society¸ and Shift. He has presented his research internationally, most recently at the Global Reconciliation Summit in Amman, Jordan.

        The research undertaken during the term of the fellowship is a historical/theoretical contextualization of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) within a global account of tribunals, truth commissions and TRCs since the Nuremburg trials.

    • Sarah Giest, Political Science

      • Supervisor: Michael Howlett

        I feel very fortunate to have received CTEF funding for both independent and collaborative research efforts. This support gave me the opportunity to focus on interdisciplinary issues by connecting political science theories with new technology research and deepen my understanding of both.

        Sarah holds a German Magister in Political Science from the University of Bonn with Minors in Media Science and Psychology, and a Masters degree from Aalborg University (Denmark)/Lund University (Sweden) in the field of Society, Science and Technology Studies. Both degrees are related to policy frameworks for the commercialization of biotechnology and ethical aspects of embryonic stem cell work in Germany and Europe. Sarah is currently a Ph.D. student at SFU, researching the formation of industry clusters related to biotechnology issues. Sarah is also affiliated with the Genome Canada/Genome BC-funded GE3LS Project, where she collaborates with the UBC Wine Research Centre on the Grape and Wine Genomics project.

        Project work and PhD research will continue to address the role of policy in cluster formation. Industry clusters have a crucial role in the economic performance of regions and even countries. The research focuses on network solutions within those clusters, including a range of actors from politics, research and industry. The goal is to find a strategy that can help those actors to cooperate and communicate better and make the cluster as a whole more successful. Further, a comparative perspective offers insight into e.g. European models of cluster management and the role of policy frameworks, which are useful for Canadian settings.

    • Mehran Norafkan, Linguistics

      • Supervisor: Juan Sosa

        The CTEF program is supporting important research aimed at improving the ESL proficiency and cultural competence of immigrants to Canada. As a full-time student, this program assists me financially, but it also helps to create a supportive atmosphere for my research activities.

        Mehran became a permanent resident of Canada in 2004. He was an ESL teacher from 2004 to 2009, when he began his studies at SFU. His research interests are in the areas of Teaching English as a Second Language, computer assisted language learning, cognitive linguistics, and sociolinguists.

        Second language learning is a serious need of all new immigrants to Canada. Mehran's goal in his Ph.D. program is to pursue research for improving ESL and SLA (cultural competence), particularly in Canada.

    • Anne Rimrott, Linguistics

      • Supervisor: Trude Heift

        The CTEF Graduate Fellowship was tremendously helpful for me in completing my Ph.D. dissertation. I went back to work on my dissertation when my second child was three months old. The Fellowship allowed me to focus on my research without adding to my workload at this stressful time in my life.

        Anne's research interests are second language acquisition, computer-assisted language learning, vocabulary learning, and multilingualism. In December 2010, Anne completed her Ph.D. in Linguistics with a dissertation on computer-assisted vocabulary learning. She designed an online flashcard-based multimedia vocabulary program to examine individualized vocabulary instruction and the learnability of concrete and abstract foreign language words when studying with multimedia annotation, such as pictures or audio pronunciation files.

        Anne has two trilingual children. She is currently working as a language consultant for bilingual and multilingual families, providing parents with family-specific strategies, resources, and recommendations for successfully raising multilingual children.

    • Nancy Teeple, Political Science

      • Supervisor: Douglas Ross

        The CTEF Doctoral Graduate Fellowship in Humanities has been of paramount importance in my pursuit of doctoral work, particularly in providing the means to travel for research and presenting conference papers abroad.  Such funding is essential to assist graduate students in promoting their research in connection with Simon Fraser University within the international academic community.

        Nancy holds an M.A. in War Studies from the Royal Military Collage of Canada, and has worked with the Canadian Land Forces at the Canadian Forces Base in Kingston, Ontario. Her academic studies span the range of international relations, foreign and public policy as they pertain to Canadian national security interests and international security issues. Her research interests focus on security issues in the Canadian Arctic in light of the growing importance of circumpolar geopolitics.

        Nancy's thesis topic will consider the potential for the Arctic region to become a nuclear weapon free zone. She hopes to make a contribution to reviewing and revising Canada's strategic role in the global security environment, which will shape its future role and determine its credibility as an actor within an increasingly uncertain international environment of alternating state rivalries and multilateral partnerships.

    PICS Fellowships
    The Pacific Institute for Climate Solutions (PICS), hosted and led by the University of Victoria in collaboration with UBC, SFU, and UNBC, focuses on research about the low carbon emissions economy, sustainable communities, resilient ecosystems, social mobilization, and carbon management in BC's forests. PICS offers postdoctoral, graduate, and visiting scholars fellowships. For information on how to apply, please visit the PICS website.

    • PICS-SFU Fellows

      • International Research
      SFU students can participate in research and study at universities and companies worldwide, through International Co-op and Study Abroad exchanges, field schools, and dual degree programs. Since 2006, the India Initiative has opened up new opportunities for SFU students to engage in collaborative research with leading organizations such as Tata Consultancy Services, SAP Business Objects and the Public Health Foundation of India. The following profiles provide a brief glimpse of some of the interesting research projects that SFU students are engaged in around the world.