Real world research: learn more at open house
Learn more about the RRU Langford John Horgan Campus.
What do homelessness and tourism in Victoria have to do with each other? What are the original names of familiar places around British Columbia’s capital? What is the future of agriculture and what technologies are potential game changers?
Finding answers to these questions and more will be the focus of a Royal Roads University open house next month in Langford at the new John Horgan Campus.
Research in your neighbourhood
The South Island Community Research Exchange is scheduled for Nov. 21 at the John Horgan Campus in the Goldstream Village neighbourhood and is an opportunity to create connections between the community and RRU faculty and researchers.
At the event, researchers, mostly master’s students, will offer posters and presentations explaining their work and offer approaches to improving wellbeing and ecosystems in southern Vancouver Island. Project examples include Melinda Quintaro, who created a map of original placenames and corresponding stories of Indigenous sites between Oak Bay and Esquimalt, and Roli Anne Silas-Aiyegbeni. whostudied the relationship between Victoria tourism and homelessness in the city.
Bring your curiosity
Visitors to the open house will be able to tour and chat with the presenters to learn more about their research, focusing on environmental, tourism and Indigenous topics, and several presenters will be using large touchscreen boards that visitors can interact with to engage with the research.
As well, says RRU assistant professor Rob Newell, assistant professor and Canada Research Chair in Climate Change, Biodiversity and Sustainability, who’s hosting the event along with colleague Brian White, visitors to the open house will be able to use a visualization tool, employing computers and virtual reality headsets to “look at” a potential agri-tech park at a Langford business where products such as plant-based proteins could be created.
“We're going to give people an immersive experience and try to give a sense of, if this were to happen in their own community, how would they feel about it?” says Newell. “It's sharing what we're doing with this research project but, also, it's a way of involving folks in the research.
“We're trying to create an interface between research and practice,” he adds.
John Horgan Campus a hub for West Shore education
White, a professor in Tourism and Hospitality Management, says last year’s open house attracted community members and local politicians, and he’s hopeful this year’s also draws high school students and teachers to see the kind of work that happens at Royal Roads and create some excitement around higher education on the West Shore.
“I'm hoping that we'll get the attention and the recognition for the quality of the work that our students are doing from local [city] managers and planners, but also from schoolteachers,” White says. “The circumstances of employment are going to change and we want to reinforce the idea of getting a quality education.”
The South Island Community Research Exchange runs from 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. Friday, Nov. 21 in the multipurpose room at the John Horgan Campus, located at 798 Goldstream Ave.