Scholarship@Western

ahadinejad, Pedram

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Seeing Data Clearly: How AI and Visualization Shape 
Understanding 
Pedram ahadinejad 
Middlesex County College, pahadine@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
ahadinejad, Pedram, "Seeing Data Clearly: How AI and Visualization Shape Understanding" (2025). 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 
693. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/693 
Misunderstood data has real-world consequences. In 1854, Dr. Snow mapped cholera 
deaths—turning numbers into insight and proving water, not air, was responsible. In 1986, 
NASA engineers had data showing cold caused shuttle failures but failed to present it 
clearly. The Challenger exploded—simple dot plots might have revealed the risk. Today, 
data floods in from every direction: finance, climate, health. Poor and inappropriate data 
visualizations still mislead. In the AI era, we gain powerful allies: agentic systems explore 
data, call tools, and suggest visual mappings and explanations in natural language. Hence, 
programming can become visual, and sensemaking become collaborative. New tools must 
offload cognitive strain—guide attention to patterns, novelties, better questions, and 
support informed decisions. My research explores how combining visual reasoning and AI 
can augment human cognition and perception. In complex real-world scenarios, 
visualization isn’t just helpful— it prevents mistakes, reveals truth, and sharpens our 
thinking. 
 


Seeing Data Clearly: How AI and Visualization Shape Understanding

Rao, Sanna

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
White Coats and Black and White Minds 
Sanna Rao 
The University of Western Ontario, srao43@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Rao, Sanna, "White Coats and Black and White Minds" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 701. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/701 
Inspiring Minds 
Name: Sanna Rao 
Supervisors: Dr. Carri Hand and Dr. Sachindri Wijekoon 
 
White Coats and Black and White Minds 
The walls of hospitals were meant to heal. What happens when these walls become a place where 
healing hurts, where healing excludes, where instead of prescriptions illnesses are prescribed? 
What once was a hotbed of infections is now a place where care is contaminated with prejudice 
and discrimination. 
Islamophobia, a racist, stereotypical, and hostile rhetoric is greeting Muslim patients in 
healthcare spaces. Religiosity has largely been cited as a positive contributor to one’s 
psychological wellbeing - but why is Islamic religiosity leaving patients with wounds? Operating 
at the individual, interpersonal and structural level, Islamophobia and its manifestations in 
healthcare, which itself is rooted in the secular biomedical model, runs the risk of ignoring 
minoritized identities in collectivist cultures, such as Islamic cultures. Therefore, for my 
research, I will be synthesizing the literature on the role Islamophobia plays in how Muslim older 
adults engage in religious occupations and expression in healthcare settings. 
 


White Coats and Black and White Minds

Karthikeyan, Purvaja

Sabarinathan, Jayshri

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Western Skylark: Space-Enhanced Wildlife Tracking with Optical 
Payload 
Purvaja Karthikeyan 
Western University, pkarthi3@uwo.ca 
Jayshri Sabarinathan 
Western University, jsabarin@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Karthikeyan, Purvaja and Sabarinathan, Jayshri, "Western Skylark: Space-Enhanced Wildlife Tracking with 
Optical Payload" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, 
Scholarship and Creative Activity. 706. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/706 
Western Skylark: Space-Enhanced Wildlife Tracking with Optical Payload 
The Western Skylark is a small satellite, known as a 3U CubeSat, designed to enhance the tracking 
of migratory birds such as songbirds. Currently, researchers must travel to remote ground stations 
across Canada to collect data—a process that is both slow and labor-intensive. Skylark will orbit 
Earth in a sun-synchronous path, automatically collecting data from these stations and transmitting 
it to Western University. 
Alongside its main mission, Skylark will carry an experimental payload called the Photonic Test 
Bench (PTB). This platform will test photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in space for the first time. 
These miniature chips, which have revolutionized communication on Earth, could support future 
space applications like sensing, filtering, and high-speed data transmission. The PTB will evaluate 
the performance of PICs and explore ways to improve their resistance to the space environment, 
helping lay the groundwork for advanced, radiation-hardened PICs for future space missions. 
 


Western Skylark: Space-Enhanced Wildlife Tracking with Optical Payload

Irani, Reza

Macpherson, Ewan

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
When the Brain Can’t Hear 
Reza Irani 
The University of Western Ontario, rirani4@uwo.ca 
Ewan Macpherson 
The University of Western Ontario, ewan.macpherson@nca.uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Irani, Reza and Macpherson, Ewan, "When the Brain Can’t Hear" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital 
Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 707. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/707 
Reza Irani  
 
When the Brain Can’t Hear 
 
Imagine someone is speaking to you in a foreign language. You hear every word, but you can’t 
understand what they mean. This is what life feels like for a child with Auditory Processing 
Disorder (APD), except it’s happening in their own language, especially in noisy settings like 
classrooms. Their ears may work fine, but their brains struggle to make sense of sound. 
APD is often mistaken for laziness or inattention, but it’s actually a neurological disorder that 
affects how the brain processes sound. 
My research explores how deficits in spatial hearing (the ability to locate sounds and focus on what 
matters) make it harder for these children to understand speech in complex environments. 
By promoting earlier diagnosis and intervention, we aim to help these children succeed in school, 
communicate with confidence, and enjoy a better quality of life, without constantly struggling to 
keep up with what others grasp with ease. 
 


When the Brain Can’t Hear

Niu, Hiulin

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Unraveling Cellular Crosstalk in Metastatic Cancers 
Hiulin Niu 
Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, hniu32@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Niu, Hiulin, "Unraveling Cellular Crosstalk in Metastatic Cancers" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital 
Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 721. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/721 
Title: Unraveling Cellular Crosstalk in Metastatic Cancers 
Cancer doesn’t just spread—it seeds, builds niches, and communicates with the cells 
around it. My research explores how tumor cells interact with their environment to drive 
metastasis, the leading cause of cancer-related death. Using a newly assembled 
liposarcoma dataset and public resources, I investigate why cancers spread to specific 
sites and how their microenvironments evolve along the way. Can these changes reveal 
where cancer is heading next? To find out, I examine the immune landscape, metabolic 
activity, gene mutations and gene expression patterns of tumors. By integrating data 
science with cancer biology, I aim to decode the molecular signatures that help tumors 
grow, move, and resist treatment. Understanding this cellular crosstalk could offer new 
strategies to predict and treat cancer spread. 


Unraveling Cellular Crosstalk in Metastatic Cancers

Drozd, Gabriela

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Exploring how Meaning-Making is fostered in a Dementia Day 
Program 
Gabriela Drozd 
Western University, gdrozd@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Drozd, Gabriela, "Exploring how Meaning-Making is fostered in a Dementia Day Program" (2025). Inspiring 
Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 727. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/727 
Exploring how Meaning-Making is Fostered in a Dementia Day Program 
 
Dementia day programs stand as valuable community resources, designed to support older adults 
navigating the physical and cognitive changes that accompany dementia. My research delves into 
this unique setting, seeking to uncover how meaning is woven into the lives of individuals 
attending these programs. Engaging in meaningful activities is key to promoting well-being and 
quality of life, especially for those living with dementia. However, a gap exists in research, older 
adults living with dementia are often excluded from research under the false assumption they 
cannot or do not want to participate. My study looks to fill this gap by exploring how dementia 
day programs can help individuals foster meaning-making. By closely observing interactions 
through a focused ethnography, and applying a transactional perspective, where experience and 
meaning emerge from continuous, reciprocal transactions between individuals and their 
environment, this study aims to understand how meaning is co-created with others and the 
environment.  
 
Word Count: 150 


Exploring how Meaning-Making is fostered in a Dementia Day Program

Fresnel, Eleonore

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Invisible Stimulus: How Magnetic Fields Interact with the Human 
Body 
Eleonore Fresnel 
Western University, efresnel@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Fresnel, Eleonore, "Invisible Stimulus: How Magnetic Fields Interact with the Human Body" (2025). 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 
731. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/731 
Invisible Stimulus: How Magnetic Fields Interact with the Human Body 
Eléonore Fresnel 
 
Every day, we are surrounded by invisible forces — magnetic fields from power lines, trains, 
and medical devices. People aren’t aware of them, but what if these fields affect our 
bodies more than we realize? In my research, I investigate how extremely low frequency 
magnetic fields (ELF-MF) might subtly stimulate the human peripheral nervous system — 
without any physical contact. Using a custom-designed coil system, I expose participants to 
controlled ELF-MF conditions and monitor their physiological responses— both through 
subjective reports as well as objective measurements of brain activity using 
electroencephalography (EEG). My goal is to address critical gaps in our understanding of 
ELF-MF effects and assess whether current safety standards are truly protective. In essence, 
I’m working to decipher the boundaries of an invisible frontier between safe and unsafe — 
one nerve signal at a time. 


Invisible Stimulus: How Magnetic Fields Interact with the Human Body

Shahed Gharahshiran, Vahid

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Carbon to Clean: A Bold Step Toward Net-Zero Using Plasma 
Technology 
Vahid Shahed Gharahshiran 
The University of Western Ontario, vshahedg@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Shahed Gharahshiran, Vahid, "Carbon to Clean: A Bold Step Toward Net-Zero Using Plasma Technology" 
(2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative 
Activity. 739. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/739 
Carbon to Clean: A Bold Step Toward Net-Zero Using Plasma Technology 
As Canada is the world's fourth-largest crude oil producer and has the world's third-largest proven 
oil reserves, its overall greenhouse gas (GHG) emission is driven primarily by increased oil and 
gas sector emissions. In this sector, energy demand has been primarily met using fossil fuels, 
resulting in increased GHG. In 2021, Canada committed to reducing GHG emissions by 40‑45% 
below 2005 levels by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050. 
Our research aims to convert CO2 into clean fuels through plasma technology at room conditions. 
This project not only prevents the release of CO2 into the atmosphere but also introduces 
alternative clean fuels to use instead of fossil fuels in the oil and gas sector of Canada as one of 
Canada's sustainable development goals is that by 2030, 90% of Canada's electricity is to be 
generated from renewable and non-emitting resources. The dependence on plasma makes our 
process a green technology.  
 
 
 


Carbon to Clean: A Bold Step Toward Net-Zero Using Plasma Technology

Si, Dayanqi

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Ontario public libraries can save heritage languages! 
Dayanqi Si 
Western University, dsi3@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Si, Dayanqi, "Ontario public libraries can save heritage languages!" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A Digital 
Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 740. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/740 
Are you worried that your children born and raised in Canada will not be able to speak 
your mother tongue? Public libraries may be able to help! My PhD thesis aims to explore how 
Ontario public libraries can help second-generation immigrants in maintaining their heritage 
languages. Ontario public libraries should not only have materials and programs offered in 
English and French. Every language is associated with its culture, every language and its 
associated culture is invaluable, and no language should be seen as superior to another language. 
Although English and French are the two official languages of Canada, there are many more 
languages that are spoken by people in Canada. As a society that promotes inclusivity and 
diversity, it is important for second-generation immigrants to maintain their heritage languages 
as it is a part of their identities. These second-generation immigrants will be better-off being 
bilingual or multilingual than being monolingual. 
 


Ontario public libraries can save heritage languages!

Hollins, Kyra E

Western University 
Scholarship@Western 
Inspiring Minds – A Digital Collection of 
Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and 
Creative Activity 
Inspiring Minds 
September 2025 
Supporting Parents to Optimize Their Child's Movement 
Kyra E. Hollins 
khollins@uwo.ca 
Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds 
Citation of this paper: 
Hollins, Kyra E., "Supporting Parents to Optimize Their Child's Movement" (2025). Inspiring Minds – A 
Digital Collection of Western’s Graduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity. 744. 
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/inspiringminds/744 
Supporting Parents to Optimize Their Child’s Movement 
Kyra Hollins (Master’s Student) 
Supervisor: Dr. Trish Tucker 
 
The early years (ages 0–4) are critical for building healthy habits in physical activity, sleep, and 
sitting/screen use – yet many Canadian parents report not having enough information or support 
to help children in these areas. Through one-on-one interviews, my research will explore what 
parents know about movement behaviour, what they are unsure of, what topics they would like 
more help with, and what type of resource would be useful to make them feel more confident in 
supporting their child’s movement– whether through (for example) social media, health visits, or 
community programs. By listening to what parents experience and prefer, my aim is to create a 
tool that feels practical and easy to use, and that will provide the needed information and support 
to parents so they can continue to encourage healthy habits within their young children. 


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