From Data to Impact Through Collaboration

Organizations outside of the University of Windsor contribute to research and creative activity through direct investment, but also through the investment of their time and knowledge as active partners.

With one in three Windsor-Essex secondary school students born in another country, a sense of belonging at school is a key step to student success. A group of researchers at the Faculty of Education, led by Dr. Clayton Smith, is collaborating with the Greater Essex County District School Board to develop a foundational body of research on how a sense of belonging develops for international students. “We know a lot about how international students fare in colleges and universities,” says Dr. Smith, “but there is almost no research on students arriving in Canada during their high school years.” The project, funded by a SSHRC Partnership Engage grant awarded in 2021-2022 focuses on the 120 or so international students who come to Canada on education visas in high school, but the research team believes their results will be applicable to new Canadians and exchange students, too. “Our goal is to understand what their lives are like and what school initiatives have a positive impact,” says research assistant Thu Lu, herself an international student from Vietnam. “We want to create a framework that shares successful practices with other schools in Windsor-Essex and beyond” using data collected through focus groups, journaling, and surveys. This benchmark data collected through a partnership that involves school board superintendents, teachers, principals, and mental health professionals, and is expected to lead to exciting future research projects that improve students’ lives.

Dr. Clayton Smith (right) with his research team, from left: Dr. George Zhou, PhD candidates Thu Le and Atiya Razi, and Michelle Marcuz, International Student Lead, Greater Essex County District School Board.

When Dr. Nick Vukotic joined the University of Windsor in 2019, he arrived with an idea for developing a new x-ray device that could quickly test very small amounts of pharmaceuticals, minerals, chemicals, or even nanomaterials. An exciting partnership with PROTO Manufacturing, a local company which develops and manufactures x-ray diffraction devices, allowed his work to accelerate rapidly. The newly developed system, called the LPD-HT (High-Throughput Laboratory Powder Diffractometer), has shown such a significant increase in performance that PROTO decided to add them to their 2023 production line, planning to build them in their new production and R&D facility in LaSalle, Ontario. Company president Mike Brauss is enthusiastic about the new product development that resulted from the partnership: “It is a significant advance in our X-ray diffraction technology, and we are excited to commercialize the system, as the production and sales of these instruments will lead to new jobs in the Windsor/Essex region.” The new instrument will become the cornerstone of a new Materials Discovery Facility which will be open to other universities and interested companies and partners. The team anticipates significant interest from companies working on everything from pharmaceuticals or nutraceuticals formulations to environmental companies interested in soil analysis. The facility is run by Dr. Anton Dmitrienko, a member of Dr. Vukotic’s research team who helped develop the system and works within the Advanced Materials Centre of Research (AMCORe) at the University of Windsor. “Our instrument is operating 100 times better than previous instruments we had on campus, allowing us to collect data ten times faster on a very small amount of sample, just 10% of what was previously required,” adds Dr. Vukotic. “Our ability to test very small quantities rapidly and obtain high quality data means that researchers can quickly find out if they are on the right track, saving valuable time and resources. Previously, we could only run around 20 samples in a day, now if we want to, we can do over 500; it’s quite amazing.” The next stage of the project involves developing accessories for the system to help understand advanced materials. Fueled by the success they have had so far, Dr. Vukotic’s team is excited for what the future developments will bring.

Members of chemistry professor Nick Vukotic’s research group pose with an instrument panel signed by Proto and UWindsor staff involved in the build (from left): Anton Dmitrienko, Dr. Vukotic, Michelle Dao, Melissa Berberi, Madeleine Chang, Joy-Lynn Kobti, and Ali Baranbo.