In this special episode Danica Facca and Becky Horst, the Society of Graduate Students (SOGS) VP Academic and VP Finance respectively, speak with Rhys Paterson and Francesco Colosimo about their positions as SOGS VPs and give us the details on what it’s like to have these roles, how their responsibilties have changed due to the pandemic and their experiences holding such responsibilities while being students. 

To get in touch with Danica, you can contact her through her email [email protected]. Alternitively, you can follow her in Twitter and Instagram. To contact and Beck you can send her an email to [email protected].

Recorded on June 15, 2021.

Produced by Laura Munoz Baena.

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot.

Did you ever wonder how, exactly, a drone operates, or how disease is detected in farmers’ fields?  Well, in this episode of Gradcast, we sit down with Nicholas Mitchell and learn about his masters work witch was focused on multispectral cameras that are attached to drones for agri-tech applications. Some of the things you can use this for is: detecting diseases in farm fields, giving locations for farmers to increase or decrease fertilizer and assessing nitrogen and chlorophyll content of plants! 

To learn more about Nicholas' work, check out the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Western's CubeSat team Ukpik-1, or you can email him at [email protected]!

Recorded on June 8, 2021.

Produced by Hira Nadeem.

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot.

Have you heard of SOGS (Society of Graduate Students), but not really familiar with what SOGS is or what SOGS does?  In this episode, hosts Elizabeth Mohler and Gavin Tolometti unpack all things SOGS and sit down with VP Student Services, Effie Sapuridis and VP Advocacy, Yousuf Hasan to learn more about their roles. Elizabeth and Gavin hear about Empower You, a free, confidential counselling program offered to all graduate students, and learn that the work of advocacy includes much more than speaking up for students. Want to know more, check out this episode at the link below., and stay tuned for our next episode where gradcast host members sit down with the rest of the SOGS executive.

If you would like to learn more about Effie's and Yousuf's roles as SOGS Executives, you can check out the SOGS website here.

Full Video on YouTube 

Recorded on June 2, 2021

Produced by Gavin Tolometti

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

Recorded on May 20, 2021.

Produced by Hira Nadeem.

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot.

Sebastien Heine has nearly finished his 2 year MSc in Biology. He explains his research on Drosophila (fruit fly) female aggression to hosts Ariel Frame and Laura Munoz. Sebastien goes into details about his history with research and how he developed a general fascination with  neuroscience and how these brain cells connect with each other. His passion began at a young age and was fuelled by his reading of Connectome by Sebastien Seung. To find out more from Sebastien, check out his LinkedIn profile, his Facebook or email him at [email protected]

Recorded on June 1st, 2021.

Produced by Laura Munoz Baena.

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot.

So often in media and in real life, meteorites (asteroids that do not burn up in the atmosphere) striking the surface of Earth often result in catastrophic consequences for all living things. However, Geology and Planetary Sciences PhD student Lauren Stone opts to reveal the whole picture. In this episode, hosts Liam Clifford and Gavin Tolometti learn how this destructive process, known as impact cratering, can paradoxically foster a habitable environment for microscopic organisms. By discovering the secrets of these endoliths (life that survives in rocks), Lauren's research demonstrates the resiliency of life to prosper in the unlikeliest of places.

Full video available on YouTube

Recorded on May 25, 2021

Produced by Gavin Tolometti

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

In this episode Emily Davidson tells Ariel Frame and Rosemary Giles about her exciting new research project in the Neuroscience MSc program. In this project Emily will be conducting fMRI brains scans of people playing the video game Pac-Man, a more engaging task than is typically used. As a student co-supervised by philosophy professor Dr. Michael Anderson and psychology professor Jody Culham, Emily discusses her interest in the marriage of philosophy and neuroscience. 

To find out more from Emily or possibly sign up to participate in her study email her [email protected]

Full video available on YouTube

Recorded on May 18, 2021

Produced by Ariel Frame

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot

Hosts Laura and Francesco talk to masters student James Braden of his work on predicting and managing high level floods through the preparation of flood models. Here, James explains how the models work and why it is so difficult to be accurate when using data from some of the more complex systems on Earth: the weather. Listen to this episode to find out the requirements for models with higher resolution, and how they are used to inform decisions on the infrastructure of entire cities. 

Recorded on May 11, 2021.

Produced by Laura Munoz Baena.

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot.

We often think of psychedelics to be purely recreational, but studies are showing that they may have medical value. Hosts, Rhys Paterson and Francesco Colosimo sat down with Master of Science student, Sid Rankaduwa, to discuss his research involving looking for the possibility of 'higher states of consciousness' in psilocybin users. More specifically, he is testing the effects of psilocybin on certain aspects of visual processing, and seeing how this might inform current theories of consciousness.

To hear more from Sid and about psychedelic research, check out the MAPS Canada podcast!

Recorded on May 4, 2021.

Produced by Hira Nadeem.

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot.

We often think of hibernation as simply going to sleep in the wintertime, but hibernating animals aren't actually sleeping at all! It's really a special type of dormancy or torpor. This week, hosts Yimin Chen and Laura Baena speak to Masters of Biology student Amalie Hutchinson about what the cute little thirteen-lined ground squirrel of Manitoba can teach us about the cellular processes that occur while these animals are snoozing under the snow.

Recorded on April 27, 2021

Produced by Laura Munoz Baena

Theme song provided by https://freebeats.io/ Produced by White Hot