The Senate at York University has approved three new research centres. The centres are: Sensorium: The Centre for Digital Arts and Technology; the Global Labour Research Centre; and the York Centre for Field Robotics.
“This is an exciting time in the growth and development of York’s research enterprise,” said Robert Haché, vice-president research & innovation. “Our organized research units serve as synergistic hubs, supporting innovative, interdisciplinary and collaborative research taking place beyond traditional academic units. These new ORUs showcase our strengths in the areas of digital media, robotics and global labour research, highlighting new areas of opportunity as identified in our Strategic Research Plan, Building on Strength, 2013-2018.”
Sensorium: The Centre for Digital Arts & Technology
Established in the Faculty of Fine Arts to foster cross-disciplinary research in new application and content creation, scientific inquiry, policy development and creative experimentation in digital media, Sensorium: The Centre for Digital Arts & Technology will serve as a catalyst for new ideas and experimentation by linking existing labs and consolidating resources, supporting student training, and encouraging community and industry partnerships. Areas of specialization will include: 3-D cinema and stereography, perceptual science, advanced visualization, immersive environments, interface and interaction design, and mobile and networked media architecture.
Janine Marchessault, professor in the Department of Film at York University and co-founder of the Future Cinema Lab, will serve as the director of Sensorium
Janine Marchessault, professor in the Department of Film at York University and co-founder of the Future Cinema Lab, will serve as the director of Sensorium. Her research over the past five years has focused on urban space and new forms of urban media. Over the past 20 years, Marchessault has worked with the curatorial collective Public Access, investigating new models of urban public art, and has curated numerous large-scale, multi-sectoral public art exhibitions. Last spring she received a Trudeau Fellowship Award to support her research.
The Global Labour Research Centre
The Global Labour Research Centre (GLRC), based in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies, engages in the study of work, employment and labour in the context of a constantly changing global economy. The GLRC’s work is organized around four major themes: the impact of the changing nature of work and employment on labour rights; the interrelationships between migration, citizenship and work; gender relations at work and in labour movements; and the revitalization of workers’ movements.
Stephanie Ross, a professor in the Department of Social Science at York University, will serve as a co-director of the Global Labour Research Centre
The centre is co-directed by Professors Stephanie Ross and Mark Thomas. Ross, a professor in the Department of Social Science at York University, previously served as the co-director of the Centre for Research on Work & Society from 2010 to 2012. Her research and teaching focuses on democracy in working-class and social movement organizations, union renewal, public sector unionism, the global justice movement in North America, and the links between social justice organizing inside and outside of the workplace.
Mark Thomas, a professor in the Department of Sociology, will serve as co-director of the Global Labour Research Centre with Ross
Thomas, a professor in the Department of Sociology, was also a co-director of the Centre for Research on Work & Society from 2010 to 2012. His areas of research include: the regulation of labour standards at transnational, national and local scales; the social-spatial dimensions of work reorganization; and the intersections between labour organizing and populist movements in Anglo-American contexts.
The York Centre for Field Robotics
The York Centre for Field Robotics (YCFR), within the Lassonde School of Engineering, brings together researchers with an interest in sensing, planning and locomotion tasks situated in realistic (outdoor) environments. The YCFR provides a synergistic environment for faculty, technicians and students working in and/or with autonomous systems and sensors. It provides the administrative and technical support that the large-scale experimental equipment research in this area requires. The YCFR builds upon substantive investment at York in autonomous systems and will provide a focus for interaction between University researchers and national and international research efforts in field robotics.
Michael Jenkin, a professor of computer science and engineering and a member of the Centre for Vision Research, is the director of the York Centre for Field Robotics
Michael Jenkin, director of YCFR, is a professor of computer science and engineering and a member of the Centre for Vision Research at York University. Jenkins' current research interests include work on sensing strategies for AQUA, an amphibious autonomous robot being developed as a collaboration between Dalhousie University, McGill University and York University; the development of tools and techniques to support crime scene investigations; and the understanding of the perception of self-motion and orientation in unusual environments, including microgravity.
York’s Senate approved the chartering of the new centres on June 27.