{"id":7273,"date":"2017-09-11T15:59:16","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T19:59:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?post_type=cu_story&p=7273"},"modified":"2025-10-17T17:51:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T21:51:10","slug":"early-researcher-award","status":"publish","type":"cu_story","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/story\/early-researcher-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Researcher Awards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n
\n\n \n \n \n \n
\n\n \n
\n
\n\n

\n Early Researcher Awards\n <\/h1>\n \n <\/header>\n <\/div>\n\n \n <\/path>\n <\/path>\n <\/svg>\n <\/div>\n\n \n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Ontario\u2019s Early Researcher Award<\/a> (ERA) supports university researchers in building their own teams. Meet three Carleton professors whose innovative projects won them an ERA this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dale Spencer<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Sexual harassment, intimidation, extortion and exploitation have been transformed in recent years by the Internet, and so has policing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to understand Internet-based sex crimes,\u201d says Dale Spencer, associate professor in the Department of Law and Legal Studies<\/a>, \u201cbut we also need to understand how police are responding to those crimes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spencer\u2019s study will build on earlier in-depth research that identified some of the challenges facing police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese range from lack of resources\u2014for example, five officers in a sex crime unit dealing with over 100 cases at any one time\u2014to the logistics of obtaining warrants to search private online accounts, to traumatic aspects, such as having to watch videos of children being sexually abused in order to identify the victim, location or perpetrator.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research will encompass every police services organization across Canada and specifically every front-line officer working in sex crime units. It will also include interviews with youth to elicit their awareness of the legalities of sharing intimate images online.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a grim topic for research. \u201cI\u2019m deeply appreciative of the award,\u201d says Spencer.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cIt\u2019s validation that I\u2019m on the right track.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It also means that he can get more help. \u201cThe ERA is set up to fund students to be able to participate in research projects. I really enjoy teaching students how to conduct research and the ERA is a great initiative for giving them an opportunity for hands-on experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Martin Geiger<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Technology clusters around the world are economic powerhouses for their regions, which is why governments work hard to nurture their growth. A key factor for the success of clusters is their ability to attract and retain the brightest global talent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s fitting that a Carleton research project comparing how tech clusters in Canada, the United States, Europe, Asia and the Pacific region use government programs when recruiting migrants was itself generated out of a cluster\u2014in this case, a transnational research collective formed by Carleton faculty member Martin Geiger under the name Mobility & Politics<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBringing research to the classroom and regularly internationally renowned researchers and students to Carleton is at the heart of this initiative,\u201d says Geiger, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science<\/a> and the Institute of European, Russian and Eurasian Studies<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Carleton faculty member Martin Geiger and members of his student research team.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mobility & Politics has grown to nearly 80 members worldwide from different disciplines and diverse backgrounds, and the ERA project is just one of the outcomes of this unique faculty\u2013student collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cMy student research team should have the spotlight,\u201d says Geiger. \u201cThey were instrumental in creating the project from the earliest stages and collaborated on the ERA application process.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The project has an open call for student research assistants, highlighting the possibility of field research in locations around the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis study on international recruitment will in turn help attract engaged students who are interested in studying migration policies,\u201d Geiger predicts. \u201cIt\u2019s a win-win-win.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n

Xiaoyu Wang<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As prices for electric vehicles (EVs) come down and the number of public charging stations goes up, it seems that the electric car\u2019s moment may have finally arrived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But according to Xiaoyu Wang, associate professor in the Department of Electronics<\/a>, there\u2019s one more piece in the puzzle: transforming the power grid so that it can accommodate the increased demand.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n

\u201cUser data shows that most EV owners charge their car at home overnight,\u201d says Wang, who has expertise in the integration of small energy resources, such as wind and solar, into the power grid.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, if 10 to 15 households in the average urban neighbourhood each tried to charge their cars when they arrived home from work, the neighbourhood transformer wouldn\u2019t be able to handle it on top of regular electricity use. Increasing the transformer size is an expensive option. Another solution is to create a smart tool that can determine an optimal charging schedule for each household.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wang is hoping that the award will attract more researchers to his team so that he can build on a current partnership with Hydro Ottawa with an eye to developing commercial products for predicting, analyzing and managing EV usage impacts for widespread use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a lot of interest in this work from industry, and as EV technology increases across the United States, China and other countries, we have a great opportunity to become a leader in energy management for Ontario and Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ontario\u2019s Early Researcher Award (ERA) supports university researchers in building their own teams. Meet three Carleton professors whose innovative projects won them an ERA this year. Dale Spencer Sexual harassment, intimidation, extortion and exploitation have been transformed in recent years by the Internet, and so has policing. \u201cWe need to understand Internet-based sex crimes,\u201d says […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"cu_story_type":[13,19],"cu_story_tag":[1918,1921],"class_list":["post-7273","cu_story","type-cu_story","status-publish","hentry","cu_story_type-research-discovery","cu_story_type-technology-innovation","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-engineering-and-design","cu_story_tag-faculty-of-public-and-global-affairs"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cu_story"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7273\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":98564,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story\/7273\/revisions\/98564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"cu_story_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_type?post=7273"},{"taxonomy":"cu_story_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cu_story_tag?post=7273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}