Kimberley Wright

A team of U of T Mississauga computer science students won first place — and a prize of $2,500 — at the 2013 Young Entrepreneurs Challenge (YEC), where students pitched business ideas to a panel of corporate executives, Dragons’ Den style.

Fourth-year students Sabin Sadeh, Mark Zaky and Andrew Kim presented a virtual jukebox app called eJuked at the competition held on campus in January. Teams were allotted 10 minutes to sell their business concepts in front of a panel of industry leaders and successful entrepreneurs.

The win was a surprise, said the students, who competed against 14 short-listed teams from universities across the province.

“There were a lot of great ideas, so we didn’t even expect to make it to the final round of four teams," said Zaky. "When the judges awarded third place, and then second place, we thought, ‘OK, we’re out.’”

Another team of UTM computer science students won third prize.

EJuked shapes “the way people experience music in a public venue,” said Sadeh, the team’s spokesperson.The Android app allows business owners, club DJs and party hosts to create a customized music playlist and publish it to their guests. Guests can control the music from their mobile phones by choosing and voting for their favourite songs.They can also view which songs are up next in the playlist queue and how other patrons at the venue have voted.

“If a crowd comes in to a pub, they can play the music they want to hear by voting for songs they like and making requests,” Sadeh said. “Ultimately, the music in the venue becomes a function of the people who are gathered there.”

Business owners can use eJuked to deliver a better music experience, keeping customers in their seats longer and coming back to the venue again and again.

“We think the judges recognized that our concept is very flexible,” Sadeh said. “It can be adapted for the needs of the crowd and the needs of the business owners. At the end of the day, the judges wanted to see ‘where the money is.’”

In addition to the cash prize, the 2013 YEC award includes a lunch with potential investors.The eJuked team intends to develop its app for commercial sale, and hopes the resources and know-how of industry experts can help make that happen.

“We plan on adding more features— kind of like a special sauce," Sadeh said. “We want the sauce to give it a little kick, so that once users vote for a song, they will still be engaged with the app.”

The 2013 Young Entrepreneurs Challenge was hosted by UTM’s Digital Enterprise Management (DEM) Society.

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Shop locally, eat globally?

sgupta — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 13:02:21 +0000

Shop locally, eat globally? sgupta Tue, 06/12/2012 - 09:02

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Most of a food's greenhouse gas output occurs in production, not transportation, says Professor Desrochers (image by Kelly Rankin)

Kimberley Wright

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Kimberley Wright

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The Locavore's Dilemma hits bookstores

Pierre Desrochers knows how to serve up controversy. When an acquaintance mentions she follows a 100-mile diet to help the environment, Desrochers calmly asks how much energy it takes to heat an Ontario greenhouse.

When a colleague lauds local food as more nutritious than products shipped thousands of miles, Desrochers politely points out that the diet of a 19th-century German peasant consisted of lentils and peas.

Now, the ��Ƶ Mississauga geography professor has published a controversial new book that goes beyond polite mealtime conversation and pits what Desrochers calls the “romanticism” of local eating, or locavorism, against the realities of a global food-supply chain.

Desrochers is the co-author of The Locavore’s Dilemma: In Praise of the 10,000-mile Diet, in which he argues that we should stop obsessing about how many miles our food has travelled to get to our dinner plate.

“Three centuries ago most people were eating local food,” Desrochers says. “Why do we think the world moved away from that? There are significant benefits—particularly, environmental and economical—in collaborating to produce food in the best geographic locations.”

Desrochers and his wife and co-author, Hiroko Shimizu, launched the book and faced local food supporters at an ‘author meets critics’ event held on June 6, 2012 at the U of T Mississauga campus. Debbie Field, Executive Director of FoodShare Toronto, Canada’s largest community food security organization, attended the event and sees The Locavore’s Dilemma as “manipulative” and “fanning the fires, rather than trying to find a way forward” on the topic of a long-term approach to hunger and food issues.

Desrochers and Shimizu realize their views are not popular with food activists. They waded into the locavore debate in 2008 after a visiting environmental studies professor labelled the Japanese as “parasitical” because they rely on imported food to survive.

“Japan is a tiny island country with little land to grow food,” Japanese-born Shimizu says, “so, Japan produces and exports electronics and cars. You have to do what you are good at. It’s a global win-win situation.”

The couple responded to the Japanese slight by publishing a policy paper titled, Yes, we have no bananas: A critique of the ‘food miles’ perspective, which showed that over 80 per cent of a food’s greenhouse gas output occurs in production, compared to only 10 per cent in transportation. The paper received instant attention.

“There was quite a reaction to it. We had all sorts of names thrown at us,” Desrochers says, “but frankly, it’s the most successful thing I have ever written.” The paper led to articles for the Financial Post and Reader’s Digest Canada, live debates, a CBC radio phone-in show, and eventually, a book offer.

The Locavore’s Dilemma digs even deeper to confront the key tenets of locavorism: local food minimizes food miles, boosts the economy and is fresher, safer and more nutritious than the imported food found in most grocery stores.

“When it comes to the environment, focusing on food miles is like focusing on the tire pressure in your Hummer,” Desrochers says.

More important than distance travelled is efficient production in an ideal growing location, according to Desrochers. For example, a New Zealand apple harvested and shipped to Canada in mid-March has a smaller carbon footprint than a Québec apple picked in September and stored in a refrigerated warehouse.

And although the buy-local philosophy may keep farmers’ markets and corner mom-and-pop shops in business, Desrochers contends it does nothing to help the poor, either here at home or abroad. Buying expensive local food means consumers have less money to purchase other things, and it shuts the door to developing countries in Latin America and Africa—regions with ideal climates to grow food—in order to protect inefficient local producers.

“Increasingly, locavorism is being forced down our throats, and public institutions like universities, hospitals, schools and prisons are pressured to adopt local food, which is a waste of taxpayers’ money,” Desrochers says.

Raised in Québec’s fertile Saint Lawrence Valley on a rural property with 52 apple trees, a colony of rabbits and the family sugar shack, Desrochers never imagined he would write a book promoting the virtues of globe-hopping food.

“I hope that when people read The Locavore’s Dilemma they realize there are food problems in the world, but local food is not one of them,” Desrochers says. “It’s fine to eat locally in season but we should eat globally the rest of the time. That way, we can have our cake and eat it, too.”

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Helping victims of torture from around the world

sgupta — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:35:13 +0000

Helping victims of torture from around the world sgupta Thu, 05/24/2012 - 11:35

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The Toronto area is now home to thousands of refugees who fled torture and oppression in countries around the world (Bigstock photo)

Kimberley Wright

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History professor recognized for human rights work

When historian Joan Simalchik arrived at the ��Ƶ in 1976, she expected to focus on her master's studies and to get to know her way around the city.

Instead, she met Chilean refugees fleeing Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship and heard horrific stories of torture and oppression.

Simalchik could not turn away. She headed the Canadian Committee for Solidarity with Democratic Chile and campaigned to denounce human rights violations in that country.

Then she learned that a colleague had been tortured and held in solitary confinement for five years.

“He was taken from his wife, his children, his art, his work, his life,” Simalchik says. “His personality was destroyed: his hair turned completely white.”

Galvanized by his story, Simalchik devoted years to human rights work and supporting refugees who had escaped to Canada.

Now a U of T Mississauga history professor and coordinator of the Women and Gender Studies (WGS) program, Simalchik has won the 2012 Ludwik and Estelle Jus Memorial Human Rights Prize. Established in 1995 in memory of two Polish educators who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, this award recognizes Simalchik’s positive and lasting contributions to education and action against discrimination.

Simalchik has helped torture victims from virtually every continent find support, security and a sense of justice, long after their physical injuries have healed. She chairs the Canadian Centre for International Justice (CCIJ) Gender Working Group and is the former Executive Director of the Canadian Centre for Victims of Torture (CCVT).

“Thousands of people living in the GTA are victims of torture,” Simalchik says. “The CCVT sees people from over 100 countries, particularly Columbia, Sri Lanka, Somalia and recently Mexico. Growth is not good—it indicates a failure of policy in other areas.”

According to Simalchik, it’s not uncommon for victims of torture to come face-to-face with their abusers who have also migrated to Canada. The CCIJ aims to bring perpetrators to justice and to help survivors feel safe.

“Perpetrators need to know that they cannot come here and spend the money they have stolen,” Simalchik says. “They need to know that there is no safe haven in Canada or the US. When they know that, torture abroad will decrease.”

Simalchik brings her zeal for championing human rights to her role as coordinator for UTM’s Women and Gender Studies program. She highlights human rights issues in her courses and challenges students to think critically about the complex ways in which gender, class, race, ethnicity, sexuality and ability affect oppression. With more than 250 students in the program and waiting lists for nearly every course, Simalchik plans to add faculty, expand courses and link to St. George’s WGS graduate program to meet the demand for their unique curriculum.

Whether professor or activist, Simalchik brings the stark reality of torture into focus for Canadians.

“This award is meaningful for me,” she says. “As a historian, my role is to talk about what torture is, what we can do to help survivors and what we can do to prevent it from happening again.”

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Italian writing students interview ‘red-carpet’ celebrities

sgupta — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 10:18:31 +0000

Italian writing students interview ‘red-carpet’ celebrities sgupta Mon, 03/12/2012 - 06:18

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Toronto Raptors forward Andrea Bargnani enjoyed visiting U of T Mississauga to talk with language students in his native Italian.

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Toronto Raptors' Andrea Bargnani visits UTM for his interview

When seven-foot tall NBA star Andrea Bargnani ducked to enter a University of Toronto Mississauga classroom, he was greeted by 21 students — all speaking in near-perfect Italian.

“It was nerve-wracking when I asked Mr. Bargnani if he is proud of his heritage,” said second-year language studies student, Jena DiGiambattista. “He answered, ‘Of course, I’m proud — I am Italian’.”

The Toronto Raptors power forward met with DiGiambattista and her classmates on March 6, as part of their course work in Word and Image-Writing with Pen and Camera, an Italian creative writing class. Co-taught this year by Professor Anthony Mollica and Paola Bernardini, and founded in 2006 by UTM’s Guido Pugliese, the course uses experiential activities such as writing poetry, reinventing nursery rhymes and conducting face-to-face interviews with Italian celebrities to enhance writing and language skills.

“Students have fun and they forget that they are studying a language,” Mollica said. “It’s painless learning.”

For the celebrity interviews, students speak with the stars in person or by Skype, and although the professors correct questions in advance for structure and grammar, they don’t censor them in any way.

“Students ask insightful questions,” Mollica said. “They find out what an audience would like to know but is in no position to ask.”

Bargnani is just one of many ‘red-carpet’ stars attached to the course this year. In February, students spoke with singer/songwriter Elisa Toffoli, and later in March they will interview singer/rapper Lorenzo Jovanotti and actors Sofia Milos (CSI Miami) and Antonio Cupo.

Bernardini bypassed publicists to recruit stars directly through her connections as editor-in-chief of Corriere Canadese, a Canadia-Italian newspaper. After months of planning and several last-minute tweaks, the celebrity line-up finally came together.

“We chose celebrities that our students could really relate to,” Bernardini said.

In 2012, UTM’s Department of Language Studies will expand their unique curriculum with the addition of Recreational Linguistics, a course focused on word games and wordplay.Mollica, who will teach the course, believes that wordplay aids language development.

“Besides, it’s fun,” Mollica said. “Many people don’t even read the news, they go straight to the crossword puzzle.”

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