UBC Reports

July 2011

Alexis Kho is one of 500 students employed through Work Study and Work Learn Programs. Martin Dee Photograph

Putting students to work

Close to 500 students get summer jobs at UBC through Work Study and Work Learn Programs

By Heather Amos

Summer camps: offerings include novel options like health and technology

The lazy days of summer – time for selling lemonade on the sidewalk, watching Canadians games at Nat Bailey Stadium, hanging around the pool, and.… learning about health technology?

By Brian Kladko

Andrew Riseman (left) and Greg Rekkan tested local and farm-derived fertilizers. Martin Dee Photograph

How to grow the perfect tomato

Hairy vetch hardly sounds like something that will help tomatoes taste more like summer and sunshine.

By Lorraine Chan

UBC’s Okanagan campus School of Engineering Assist. Prof. Kasun Hewage, left, and Civil Engineering MASc student Fabricio Bianchini are conducting tests to see what discarded building materials are best suited to be used in green roofs. Darren Handschuh Photograph

Making green roofs greener

Engineers at UBC’s Okanagan campus develop construction process with global potential

By Darren Handschuh

UBC Sociology Prof. Ed Grabb’s research debunks many cultural stereotypes of Canadians and Americans. Photograph courtesy of Ed Grabb

Canadians and Americans are more similar than assumed

For many Canadians, comparing Canada and the U.S. is a national pastime, right up there with hockey and complaining about the weather.

By Basil Waugh

Dentistry student Cameron Garrett looks forward to seeing new and familiar faces. Martin Dee Photograph

UBC Dentistry team Serves Penelakut First Nation

Mention a small B.C. island during July and most people assume sun, sand and vacation.

By Lorraine Chan

Trees are connected underground through a web of fungi that live inside the roots of trees. In forests, Mother trees act as central hubs for this network and support young trees by infecting them with fungi and ferrying them the nutrients they need to grow. Drawing from Mother Tree video by Dan McKinney

At the root of the problem

Trees may have trouble growing in changing environments

By Heather Amos

CIRS’ wood construction will provide many environmental benefits. Ann Campbell Photograph

Lumber, rarely a structural material in commercial buildings, is having a 21st-century revival at UBC’s Centre for Interactive Research on Sustainability. It’s in beams, columns and floors and will help to make CIRS a regenerative building that improves its environment.

By Lynn Warburton

Simulated interactive maps of UBC’s Knowledge Network. A tree or a net? A depiction of UBC’s formal organizational structure and researchers’ interpersonal interactions.

Redrawing UBC: Research maps knowledge

The need to navigate UBC’s complex web of research partnerships has sprung a first-of-its-kind project that could help a new UBC professor – and the rest of the world – visualize the strengths of the university’s enormous research enterprise and identify new opportunities for collaboration.

By Brian Lin

The University of British Columbia