Students wielding hunting knives stir controversy

Students at the University of the Fraser Valley have voiced their discomfort with fellow students carrying knives around campus.

Mike Twolan, head of UFV security, points out that “Carrying a knife [. . .] is not against the law. Certain knives are against the law: switchblades, stilettos, blades that retract and protract automatically, spring-loaded.”

Although the discomfort of others does not make carrying a knife illegal, Twolan does not support students bringing knives to school, and UFV security is working on a policy to restrict it. However, this is keeping in mind that to some students’ knives, such as the kirpan, hold religious significance.

With files from The Cascade

A glass of wine not equivalent to an hour at the gym

In contrary to recent viral claims, University of Alberta researchers have proven that drinking one glass of wine does not give the same benefits of working out.

A study produced by U of A’s Dr. Jason Dyck in 2012 found that the polyphenol compound resveratrol — found in red wine — may naturally make exercising easier, especially for heart failure patients.

Though resveratrol appears naturally in foods such as nuts, fruits and red wine, Dyck noted that one would have to drink “100 to 1,000 bottles [of wine] a day” to reach the prescribed amount used in their study. 

With files from The Gateway

Ryerson introduces a major program in a native language

Ryerson University’s department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (LLC) introduced a new BA program, the bachelor of Language and Intercultural Relations.

The degree program, which is the LLC’s first, will allow students to pursue a major in literature studies in their native language.

Dean of the faculty of arts, Jean-Paul Boudreau, said, “We think that language and the importance of linguistic diversity is really foundational to building a strong, first-rate University.”

With files from The Eyeopener

Harbour Centre

On Thursday February 19, the SFU Vancouver Speakers Series, in partnership with SFU Public Square, hosted a lecture by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and writer Chris Hedges titled “The Rules of Revolt: What do citizens owe ourselves, each other, and our governments?” The event took place at St. Andrew’s-Wesley United Church.

Woodward’s

Tickets were sold out for an interdisciplinary performance presented by SFU’s Vancity Office of Community Engagement, titled “Spell to Bring Lost Creatures Home.”

The performance incorporated the works of visual artist Shary Boyle and songwriter Christine Fellows in a series of vignettes, projected live and accompanied by music.

Surrey

SFU’s Task Force on Flexible Education hosted its third “World Café” on the relevance and flexibility of a university degree.

The event, open to students, staff, and faculty members, was previously held at the Burnaby and Vancouver campuses. It addressed questions such as, “How can SFU provide more relevant learning experiences to its students?”

Imagine a pair of insoles that took the kinetic energy of your steps and converted it into usable electricity.

SFU student Taylor Ward’s newest design, STEP, is meant to do just that. The concept of STEP centres on finding a way to create renewable energy from a device that has been around for thousands of years: the shoe.

The purpose of the insole is to help users store energy generated by their steps, roughly 100 W for each step. This energy is then pumped back into the city through the form of public transfer stations connected to a city-wide power grid.

Ward travelled to San Francisco earlier this month to present his idea at the Interaction15 Conference as part of the 2015 IxDA Student Design Challenge. At the conference, he presented his idea before an audience including roughly 900 IxD professionals as part of the final portion of the competition.

The competition challenged graduate as well as undergraduate students around the world to design a product that will hold practical usage, both in the world as it is today and the world we aim towards in the future. This year’s challenge was based on the concept of a “wearable city.”

The concept of a wearable city is an initiative to think about how our everyday lives are creating an impact on the world and its environment, and whether a design could benefit from what is already there, either in progress or in use. As IxDA mentioned on their website, this competition seeks to challenge students to dive deeper, beyond the feasibility or even application of their design, and to explore what it means to be cognisant of the environment.

Ward, who is currently completing his joint design and marketing major, took first place at the competition.

STEP was largely inspired by Vancouver’s 2020 action plan, Ward informed The Province. He also took inspiration from the current usage of electricity within Canada. As he explained in his IxDA submission video, “Canada’s domestic consumption of electricity was nearly 560 trillion watts of power, expanded in a single hour.”

When Ward looked at people’s travelling patterns around Vancouver, he discovered that harnessing their existing behaviours could convert them into mini power plants and potentially address our overconsumption of electricity and power.

Ward explains that the components for the insole are based on the technology of piezoelectric nano-generators and capacitors, which are used to convert the kinetic energy of a step into electricity.

Despite the idea being a conceptual design, it is very plausible, he told The Province.  The insole would not only benefit from walkers, but also runners, and perhaps even cyclists.

Ward expanded the potential benefactors of this concept to include people in developing nations. If people could help power up their own villages with STEP, it could decrease the usage of other potentially damaging sources, such as high volumes of coal.

For Ward, the possibilities are endless. “In our lifetimes we take approximately 150 million steps,” Ward stated in his video. “Imagine if we could capture that power.”