Human-Centred Design Lab

International interns contribute to AC research project for at-risk youth

Two international youth are interning at the Algonquin College Ottawa Campus through the Fall 2025 Term. Te-Jung Tsai and Tzu-Ming Lin are part of the Taiwanese Ministry of Education’s Taiwan Global Pathfinders Initiative, which encourages Taiwanese youth to work abroad, exchange ideas and build cross-cultural connections with the international community.

Five people pose in front of a red conference banner

(L-R): Te-Jung Tsai, Tzu-Ming Lin, Maria Montano (full-time research associate), Jed Looker, Danny Nhu (full-time research associate, TASTE team lead)

While at the College, Tsai and Lin are interning at the Human-Centred Design Lab under Principal Investigator Jed Looker, working on a community-based research project to address the challenge faced by Ottawa youth not in employment, education or training (NEET). In collaboration with Kevin Holmes in the Social Innovation Lab, the two-year project, titled Supporting Vulnerable Youth: A Transdisciplinary Approach to Service Transformation in NEET (TASTE), is funded by the Embark Student Foundation Grant in partnership with the Rideau-Rockcliffe Community Research Centre and aims to build pathways to post-secondary education by identifying the challenges faced by at-risk youth. Continue reading →

AC students document Yazidi genocide in online portal

Students in the Interdisciplinary Studies in Human-Centred Design program at Algonquin College have developed a framework for an online resource portal cataloguing the genocide against the Yazidi people, as well as their culture and traditions. The project is one of many submitted for the next RE/ACTION Showcase on Friday, Aug. 12, where students will showcase leading-edge applied research to an audience of peers, faculty and community partners.

In partnership with Yazidi Legal Network, student researchers Anne Millar and Benjamin Varghese conducted research to envision what the portal could look like and developed a framework within the scope of the project. Their findings will serve as a proof-of-concept to create a database on crimes against Yazidis for various user groups, including human rights lawyers, academics, humanitarian workers and the Yazidis themselves.

Yazidis are Kurmanji-speaking peoples indigenous to the Kurdistan region. Canada has officially recognized the genocide of the Yazidi people by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as Daesh. According to Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, over 1,400 Yazidi survivors of Daesh have resettled in Canada as of January 2021.

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Walking with wild elephants and swimming among dolphins: this AC project knows no bounds

Imagine a world where walking with elephants helped children manage their anxiety.

Using the power of virtual reality (VR), a team of three Algonquin College students are bringing dolphins to doorsteps, pyramids to backyards and elephants to classrooms to support children in need of a calming, secure and emotionally-safe environment.

Through the project New Realities: A Guide for Virtual Reality in Classrooms and at Home, learners from the Human-Centred Design Lab – Sara Hubberstey, Jean Pierre Lachance and Maria Tchernikova – are helping their client, Wishplay, bring VR to children at home and in the classroom.

Along with supervising professor Jed Looker, the team is developing a VR user guide that explores how to set-up and administer VR for children aged 6-12. The students determined user guide best practices through literature reviews, speaking with subject-matter experts, as well as interviews with educators and guardians.

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