A Paper Tale: The Decline of Paper from Ancient Times to Present Day  with John O'Neill (Art Conservation)
This presentation will focus on the 2000-year-long history of paper, from its origin in ancient civilizations to the present day:  how ancient ‘primitive’ technology could create  high quality long-lasting papers, and how centuries of ‘progress’ led to inferior-quality modern papers. Recent efforts to reverse this trend will be discussed. This will be an illustrated lecture, followed by a demonstration of various papers, from ancient to modern. Limited to 15  participants. SOLD OUT

Education for Innovation in Physical and Applied Sciences with Brian Frank (Engineering) 
Innovation, problem solving, and critical thinking are the heart of university programs. This presentation will focus on how universities are developing capacity for innovation and complex problem-solving, including examples of how engineering programs are redeveloping themselves. Participants will experience the learning activities used in science and engineering programs, and look at the future of education in science and engineering.

Marketing Christianity in the Roman Empire: How a Grass-Roots Movement became a World-Religion with Richard Ascough (Religious Studies)
Early Christianity evolved from small, quasi-independent religious groups to become a dominant force in the late Roman empire. Yet in the beginning, these Jesus-believing groups were virtually indistinguishable from myriads of other small religious associations in Roman antiquity. These groups set up thousands of Greek and Latin inscriptions that reveal much about their membership and organization as well as their social status and aspirations. This seminar will explore the implications of research on these inscriptions for understanding the broad religious marketplace of which early Jesus-believers were a part. It will demonstrate that what sets Christianity apart is not the inherent superiority of its philosophical theology or its moral stance, nor its unique social organization or evangelistic efforts. Christianity evolved much as did these other groups, only gaining ascendency when it was singled out by wealthy Roman elites and a powerful militarily backed government as a mechanism to dominate and control society in order to maintain the peace and security of the Empire.

Gizmos and Gadgets! with Don Harmsen, Bobbi Kerlin, and Scott Whetstone (Emerging Technology Centre)
Wonder what a 3-D printer is? Does? Heard about lecture capture and wonder how it’s done? Maybe you’re just curious to see what some of the technologies are that have been incorporated into learning environments. Join us for a hands-on, interactive showcase highlighting these, and more, gizmos and gadgets in the Emerging Technology Centre. Limited to 25 participants. SOLD OUT

Talking Rocks!  with Jamie Archibald, Oscar Rielo, and Perry Ross (Mining Engineering)
Venture into the Rock Mechanics Laboratories of the Robert M. Buchan Department of Mining to see teams of researchers demonstrate how, through use of using high strength compression frames and ultra-high speed photography, rock strength and deformation behaviour are studied, leading to developments in rock and engineered structural reinforcement for building foundations, tunnels and embankments. Learn about the use of spray-on geomembranes and rock liners that can be used to limit contaminant migration from municipal and hazardous waste landfill sites, and how mining studies are being conducted to minimize the exposure of miners to hazards related to deep subsurface environments. Limited to 25 participants.

Welcome Dinner featuring guest speaker Marilyn McHarg, Artsci'83, LLD'08, Executive Director of Medicins Sans Frontieres
Details to follow shortly

Haunted Walk of Kingston
Up for a fright on Friday night? Meet outside Ban Righ for this walking tour through Kingston’s old Sydenham Ward. The tour features haunted hotels, hidden burial grounds and grave-robbings, hangings at the old courthouse, and Kingston’s famous haunted courtyard. A tried and true favourite for all ages! This tour is wheelchair accessible with assistance.

Patient Welfare First: Excellence in Patient Care through Simulation-Based Education with Bob McGraw (Clinical Simulation Lab)
For the past 6 years the Faculty of Health Sciences schools (Medicine, Nursing and Rehabilitation Therapy) have partnered to develop a series of inter-professional simulation based educational programs. Simulation based education gives students the opportunity to practice important skills in a realistic clinical setting, prior to seeing real patients. This approach allows students to learn, and correct mistakes, without any risk to patients. Participants will get a chance to see, and take part in an emergency clinical simulation. Limited to 20 participants.

Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Is Breast Cancer Marketing Good for our Health? with Samantha King (Kinesiology)
Why are our shopping malls filled with pink ribbon products? How is it that we get to pay for these products with pink ribbon quarters? What prompted the illumination of Parliament Hill in pink lights? These are some of the questions we will explore as we probe the contemporary culture of breast cancer marketing and fundraising. We will examine the history of shopping for the cure and its effects on the breast cancer research agenda and the illness experiences of people with the disease.

Drawn to Paper with David McTavish (Art History)
Beginning in the Renaissance, most artists produced drawings as part of their daily practice. With greater supplies of paper, artists worked out their first ideas in drawings - which may be highly exploratory and resemble a jumble of whirling lines, or carefully finished and show a complete composition. Usually, drawings were not thought of as independent works of art, but merely as a means to an end, as preparation for a painting or sculpture. Nonetheless, fragile drawings by such artists as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Durer were collected from their day on, and now provide precious glimpses into an artist's working methods and aspirations, as well as being supremely beautiful objects in their own right.

Cognitive Aging: Use It or Lose It with Angela Garcia (Medicine)
Memory, information processing speed, focused attention, and other cognitive functions decline with aging at a variable rate and extent. There is no treatment for normal cognitive decline with aging but is there anything we can do to delay or even halt it?

Vision and Illusion: The World in our Brain with Niko Troje (Psychology)
The perception of the world around us is mediated by a complex neuronal machinery. Sensory structures such as eyes and ears capture physical energies and transform them into neural signals. Neural pathways then transport them from these structures to the central nervous system. Finally, central processing mechanisms integrate these signals into a vivid experience of the “reality” that guides our behaviour. By nature, the information that reaches the central nervous system is noisy, incomplete and generally ambiguous. I will introduce you to the sophisticated strategies by which the brain resolves these ambiguities to eventually come up with something that feels like a solid, reliable, and predictable reality which seems to exist independently of ourselves and our brains.

Designing for Abilities  with Tim Bryant, McGeachy Chair in Biomechanical Research
Have you ever had trouble reading the numbers on a cell phone, opening a jar, or understanding how to program your new coffee maker?  Have you ever wondered what it is like for people with visual impairment or those with limited mobility to undertake daily activities? This hands-on session will introduce participants to the principles of Universal Design, in which common products are developed so that a majority of people can use them. It will involve the critical examination of a number of household items as well as activities with wheelchairs and assistive devices. Limited to 25 participants.

Power for the People: A look at Canada’s Energy Future with Warren Mabee (Policy Studies/Geography)
Every day seems to bring another contentious story about Canada’s energy supply. Whether we’re discussing new pipelines to the west or into the USA, oil-sands development in Alberta and Saskatchewan, or the creation of wind farms across Ontario, everybody has an opinion. How is it that a country like ours – so dependent upon energy development for our GDP, and such heavy users of energy on a per capita basis – has no strategy for the future development of our resources? This talk will cover the very combative past of Canadian energy policy, including insights into the National Energy Program and its legacy. You’ll get a glimpse into the world of energy demand and an understanding of where our energy products are going. Finally, we’ll ask our audience to help us plan an energy future. What do we want and how will we get it? Hopefully, we’ll arrive at a solution that can deliver power to the people.

Sustainable U (You) with Joli Manson, General Manager Hospitality Services
Sustainability has become part of the fabric of university life here at Queen’s. This session will introduce you to initiatives across the campus from infrastructure to the Dining program. Learn about some of the capital projects that are in progress and proposed and the savings that have been achieved. Tour behind the scenes to see how “Quisine” is produced. Meet some of the growers of our food system here on campus and prepare a seasonal dish to taste and enjoy. Dining is NOT what you remember. It is truly dining! We look forward seeing you there. Limited to 25 participants. 

Cutting the Cords: The Wireless Era with Carlos Saavedra (Electronic & Computing Engineering)
Wireless communications devices and networking technologies are now highly integrated into our daily lives. Yet, we often forget that it was only fairly recently that our cell phones and mobile computers became untethered. In this lecture, we will explore some of the key milestones in communications technology that brought us to the present wireless age. We will start in the 19th century when electromagnetic waves were first predicted and experimentally verified. Then we will discuss the development of radio, the invention of the transistor, integrated circuits and the arrival of mobile telephony.

Queen’s Solar Education Centre: Find out how to go solar! with Design Team students Karl Kadwell, Leia de Guzman, and Richard Tam
The Queen's Solar Educational Centre is a 640 sq. ft. prefabricated home outfitted with sustainable technologies, including motorized blinds that respond to variations in light and temperature, a net zero home irrigation system, a storm water collection and reuse system, and passive and active solar techniques. The Queen's Solar Design Team invites you to learn about the latest in solar energy and green building! Limited to 25 participants.

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• Weather in a Tank with Leon Boegman (Civil Engineering)
  Global weather patterns result from winds, generated by differential heating (i.e. warming of the equator, cooling of the pole), that are deflected by the Earth's rotation. In this experiment we recreate the familiar high and low pressure atmospheric weather systems, at small scale, in a rotating tank of water.
• Indoor Surfing at Queen's! with Ryan Mulligan (Civil Engineering)
  Water waves are typically the most dominant physical process that shapes coastal regions of oceans and large lakes. Understanding wave processes is critical for coastal engineers to understand beach erosion and transport of sediments, in order to design coastal structures and reduce coastal hazards.  Using a 40 m long flume, we will demonstrate the generation of waves with a mechanical paddle, the propagation of waves along the tank and wave breaking on a model beach.  We will observe the waves using side windows in the flume and by real-time measurements from wave sensors, and discuss wave processes as they relate to scientists, engineers and recreational users like surfers.
• Mighty Canadian Rivers  with Ana da Silva (Civil Engineering)
  The beds of sand rivers are almost invariably covered by bed forms and in particular dunes. These are three-dimensional, highly dynamic features that change with flow conditions. Dunes are a common occurrence in many Canadian rivers, such as the South Saskatchewan, Red Deer, Red and Fraser rivers, where they can become very prominent features. For example, during peak discharges in the lower reach of the Fraser River, subaqueous dunes can reach up to 5 meters in height and 100 meters in length.Understanding and controlling the formation of these bed forms is essential, as they have the potential to increase flooding, impede ship navigation, and lead to scour at bridge piers, exposure of buried pipes, and sedimentation at water intakes. This session will give participants an understanding of why and how dunes occur, and first-hand insight into why they form a major concern in river engineering and management practice. Participants will take part in a large-scale laboratory experiment to be carried out in the 21m-long sediment transport flume of the QUCERL, where a river will be simulated and the formation of dunes will be observed.
• When Good Dirt Goes Bad with Andy Take (Civil Engineering)
  The risk posed by a landslide is related to whether you happen to find yourself at the top or the bottom of an unstable hill. At the top of the hill, we need to know how the physics of landslide triggering work in order to predict exactly how likely it is that a landslide will happen. At the base of the hill, we are more concerned with how far and fast a landslide might travel down slope to predict and zone danger areas. Dr Take’s team is investigating both of these aspects of landslide risk using a large landslide flume on West Campus and a 10m diameter centrifuge in Newfoundland. This session will give participants an understanding of why and how landslides occur, along with the factors that determine whether a landslide will move at a snail’s pace or at highway speed. Participants will see footage of landslide processes captured in slow motion and have a chance to hear about current research using the large-scale experimental facilities to provide better predictive models of landslide processes.

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Closing Lunch (Ban Righ) featuring Jake & Luke Reaume (both Artsci'14)

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Questions? Contact us