Wednesday April 6 2011
10:00 am - 5:15 pm

Porter Hall (2nd Floor University Centre)
Carleton University

 

What is it?

The Carleton Celebration of Women in Science and Engineering is a showcase of graduate students, faculty, and alumni of Carleton University. The number of women who enrol in many science and engineering programs is quite low, so the amazing things they do can easily go unnoticed. This day puts them in the spotlight.

The goal of this event is two-fold. First, we aim to provide networking opportunities for all female science and engineering students. Second, we would like to see members of the greater Carleton community and the general public attend these talks and learn about some of the great things happening in science and engineering. We want the world to know that there really are successful women in these fields!

This year's Celebration will showcase research and projects done by female students and faculty from Carleton in a way that is accessible to the general public, including high school students.

Everyone is invited!

Schedule

Talk Descriptions

Rockets! Rovers! Satellites! Oh My! Marla Haring, Undergraduate Student, Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering

Space technology affects our everyday life more than we think, and is the focus of study of the Space Systems Design program in the Mechanical and Aerospace Department at Carleton. This presentation will give an overview of the program and showcase some student projects.

  Using Facebook for Evil (and other bad things that happen online)Terri Oda, PhD Student, Computer Science

People like to share.  Photos, links, stories, feelings, or even what you had for dinner might end up online... it all seems harmless, but is it really?  Learn here about some of the crafty things a mean person might do using your information, and how you can try to avoid getting burned.

Conquering adversity: sub-zero survival, biomedical secrets, and women in science outside of the labAlyx Holden, Masters Student, Biology
Shannon Tessier, PhD Student, Biology

Ever wonder what happens to animals during the winter? Our research focuses on animals with incredible adaptations to the cold, including a frog that is frozen alive and a squirrel that hibernates! These extreme survival responses hold the promise of multiple biomedical applications including the cryopreservation of organs and even insight into Alzheimer’s. But being a woman in science, science is not all we do. CHANCE has the vision of empowering children in the areas of health, education, and recreation and in doing so helping to provide the opportunity for future generations to pursue their passions, as we did ours.

 Semantic Web: The Future of the InternetNatalia Villanueva-Rosales, PhD Student, Computer Science

Despite the enormous amount of data on the internet, answering simple questions like "when is the next concert of my favourite rock star near the city where I live?" is not possible yet. The best you can do is a text search in search engines like Google™, and then navigate through a bunch of websites to find the information you are looking for. In this talk, you will learn about the semantic web, the future of the internet that will be able to provide computers with the required knowledge to answer this type of question and more. 

From Source to Tap: Where does the water from your tap come from?Natalie Linklater, PhD Student, Environmental Engineering

When most of us need water, we simply turn on the tap and clean safe drinking water comes gushing out. Have you ever wondered what water goes through to get there? Come and follow a drop of water as it is taken from a water source and travels through a treatment plant to arrive in your tap. Learn what is removed, what is being missed and what you can do to ensure the future of our drinking water sources.

Kill cancer, save the rest: Up close and personal radiation treatments for cancerRowan Thomson, Professor, Physics

Radiation therapy is commonly used as a treatment for cancer with about half of all cancer patients undergoing radiation treatments.  Some types of radiation therapy involve the placement of radioactive source next to or inside a tumour.  These 'up close' radiation treatments aim to maximize tumour cell kill while protecting healthy tissues.  In this presentation, some 'up close' radiation treatments for cancer will be discussed with a focus on physics research aimed at personalizing and improving these treatments. Possible future treatment techniques, such as the use of nanodevices for radiation therapy, will be presented.

Are bacteria resistant to antibiotics?Amy Won, PhD Student, Chemistry

Have you ever heard about antibiotic resistance?  Some infections cannot be easily treated anymore because of these antibiotic resistant bacterial pathogens.  How did this evolve?  How can we prevent it?  What are the potential therapeutic agents? Find out the answers to these questions and more!

Looking inside the brain: Observe the brain during a live brain dissectionCatherine Smith, PhD Student, Neuroscience

Your brain is a complex organ responsible for what makes you.... well, you! From vision to motivation, personality to memory, and balance to sleeping, we use our brains every day, but very few of us have had an opportunity to actually see a real brain. This demo is designed to give you an opportunity to observe the brain up close during a live dissection of a calf and rat brain. Critical brain regions and structures will be identified and discussed during the dissection. 

What do soap operas and video games have to do with women in computer science?Gail Carmichael, PhD Student, Computer Science

There have been many outreach efforts designed to get girls interested in computer science.  Find out why this is important and learn about two interesting projects that try to improve the image of the field through a soap opera and a video game.  Will they convince you?

Site of long-term memory storage: Where do our memories reside in our brains?Brianne Wartman, PhD Student, Neuroscience

One of the biggest mysteries in neuroscience involves the storage of memories. Have you ever wondered where your memories are stored in your brain and how they are preserved over time? The hippocampus is a structure in the brain very important to memory storage; however, new breakthroughs in memory research have shown it's not the only one! Research into memory storage helps us to understand things like why amnestic patients lose particular memories, and why, sometimes, they can't form new memories. So, where do our memories reside in our brains, and how do they stay there across a lifetime?!

Technology Making a DifferenceNatasha D'Souza, Masters Student, Technology Innovation Management

We all love our devices and like to take them everywhere to keep up with our friends and what's going on. These are all great uses of these devices but how can they make a difference in the world. Natasha will take you on a journey of technology that will change the way you think for ever. 

Honey, could you switch back to my channel? The circuit that automatically changes the  frequency on TVs every time you need it toLaura Mutu, Undergraduate Student, Systems and Computer Engineering

Changing channels on a TV, or switching between radio stations in your car happens by simply touching a button. Actually, the little component that makes the transition between channels or stations so easy is also an essential part of the computer. This talk will focus on my undergraduate research experience last summer and will get the audience acquainted with the works and uses of the phase locked-loop (PLL). A common but complex circuit, the PLL recognizes the frequency desired (the TV channel desired by the spouse) and makes sure the “change” your spouse wants happens accordingly when you press the button on your remote.