First Year Package

SCIENCE & TECH
31
EXPLORING THE ROUGE
Kristina Dukoski,
Science & Tech Editor
Canada is home to many amazing
natural sites, but not all of them are accessible.
In fact, if you live in an urban area, chances
are you have to designate time to unwind
and immerse yourself in the scenery. Well, we
city-slickers need not worry, because there’s
a beautiful landmark right in our backyard:
Rouge Valley.
According to Parks Canada, “Once
fully established, Rouge National Urban Park
will be one of the largest and best protected
urban parks of its kind in the world, spanning
79.1 square kilometres in the heart of Canada’s
largest and most diverse metropolitan
area.” Perhaps a map could come in handy
when you choose to explore the largest park
in the world, but it does not end there: “Rouge
National Urban Park is comprised of a rich
assembly of natural, cultural and agricultural
landscapes with many remarkable features,
including: amazing biodiversity with over
1,700 species of plants and animals.” The
best part is that there will soon be an app for
that.
Alex Cavanagh, Derek Etherton,
Kaitlyn Chow, and Winston Lee, four UTSC
students, are working to give life to an app
that will allow Rouge Valley visitors to inform
themselves of the flourishing vegetation and
wildlife the park has to offer. Many may wonder
why an app is necessary for a day outdoors,
but upon being given some information
about Canada’s largest urban park, it all
begins to make sense.
Derek Etherton is in his fourth year
of study, in a computer science program. The
project fulfills his third research work-term, as
an eight-month contract software developer.
Etherton explains how he happened upon the
path that led him to his program. “It started
pretty early for me. I got into video games,
which somehow led me to video game development.
I took computer science in high
school, and here I am,” he says. He then
talked about his experience with the co-op
aspect of the program. “Co-op for computer
science is super streamlined, I think for management
as well. Maybe all undergrad programs.
You’re in the program, so they send
you an email saying, ‘Hey, it’s time to start applying
for jobs!’ Then, a bunch of job postings
go exclusively to your U of T inbox. You tailor
your resume and cover letter, hit the ‘apply’
button, then you’re set.”
Like Etherton, Alex Cavanagh is
also in his fourth year of study in a co-op
computer-science program, fulfilling his third
research work-term as a software developer
of the app. “I love technology and video
games. I loved interacting with technology as
a kid, so I took it in high school; I loved it. The
one thing that drew me here was the co-op
program. So, I looked at that, and thought,
‘Hey, if I could work while I go to school, and
take summers doing what I love to do, then
why not?” Cavanagh shares. Regarding the
specifics of the Rouge project, Cavanagh details
how the team works. “Derek and I are
the software developers, whereas Winston
and Kaitlyn are the content half. We’re building
this mobile application for the Rouge. It’s
basically an info-guide. So, if it’s your first
time there, you can open it up, and see geographically
on a map what’s around you,” he
says. “You can see some awesome pictures
and ‘favourite’ some spots so you can plan
your next trip.”
Winston Lee is currently enrolled
in the one year-long Master of Environmental
Science program, and The Rouge project
will fulfill a research internship. “I like environmental
science a lot, especially in terms of
the college-y aspect. I like looking at a largescale
natural system in terms of how different
species are important components to the system…This
one-year program offered a co-op
internship opportunity, so that really caught
my interest,” says Lee on how he got involved
in the project. Lee believes that the co-op program
could help students who are looking to
prepare for the future. “Once you get out of
undergrad, you think, ‘Oh, what do I do now?’
This seemed like a good way to get my foot in
the door in terms of finding a full-time job.”
The fourth member of the team, Kaitlyn
Chow, is enrolled in the same program as
Lee. She is also fulfilling a research internship
with the app development. “I’ve always been
interested in environmental issues on a personal
level, but I never thought that it would
be my career path,” Chow explains. “I actually
did my undergrad in microbiology…Eventually,
I figured out that wasn’t what I really wanted
to do, so after undergrad, I took a year off
to figure out where I wanted to go from there.
I discovered the program here at UTSC, and I
found out that they offered internship components;
so, it seemed like a really good way to
get some practical experience.” Taking on the
content aspect, she and Lee play an important
role in the app’s development. “Winston
and I are both content curators of the project.
So, we put together all of the writing and the
images for the app,” she explains. “We want
the app to be something that a first-time visitor
can take to the park and learn about what
Rouge [Valley] has to offer, but we also want
it to be detailed enough that someone who
has been to the park many times can still find
interesting and useful information in there.”
So, how did this project come to be?
Parks Canada has had a long-standing partnership
with UTSC, and specifically The Hub,
which is under the Office of Research. Maintained
by VP Bernie Kraatz and Director Gray
Graffam -- also the Senior Fellow & Faculty of
Arts, Culture & Media -- The Hub is the center
where innovation and business interplay.
Through the partnership with Parks, Graffam
got in contact with Omar Mcdadi, External
Relations Manager III for Parks Canada,
and began discussing the possibilities, and
an idea was born. Through the Arts and Sciences
Co-op under Dean/ VP Academic Bill
Gough, Cavanagh, Etherton, Chow, and Lee
were selected through a standard application
and interview process to begin development
on the app. With the help of IITS (Information
and Instructional Technology Services) and
BOSA (Business, Operations and Strategic
Affairs), the idea is becoming a reality.
www. the-underground.ca JANUARY AUGUST 22 7 -- FEBRUARY OCTOBER 5, 3, 2016
VOLUME 35, 36, ISSUE 05 01