Connecting with our community

Season 1 of [now innovating] wraps up with a conversation with Dr. Stephen Larter, PhD, and Jeff Ryzner. Stephen Larter is an Associate Vice-President (Research and Innovation) in the office of the Vice-President (Research) and a Professor of Petroleum Geology. Jeff Ryzner serves as the Innovation Program Specialist alongside Stephen. Dr. Larter says impact-related outcomes should be an important metric for universities. He also stresses the importance of researchers and innovators sharing their stories of failure. Jeff Ryzner echoes this sentiment, suggesting researchers and innovators should not fear being associated with failure. Jeff offers solutions for normalizing failure.  

In this episode we speak with Dr. Aleem Bharwani, Director for Public Policy and Strategic Partnerships with the Cumming School of Medicine, and the lead for Public Policy at the O’Brien Institute for Public Health at the University of Calgary. Dr. Bharwani shares his insights into bridging difference toward positive change in our community. He is interested in solving ways of bringing people back together in a world where community trust is declining.

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Shelly Russell-Mayhew, a registered psychologist and professor at the Werklund School of Education. She calls herself an accidental innovator and shares her perspective on innovation as being an action that transcends entrepreneurship. Dr. Russell-Mayhew is focused on having an impact on community by reshaping the language used in health and nutrition messaging. 

In episode 7, we speak with Dr. Aaron Phillips who is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Physiology and Pharmacology, as well as Clinical Neurosciences at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and Cardiac Science at the Libin Cardiovascular Institute at the University of Calgary. Aaron shares his approach to ensuring forward progress in ongoing projects. Dr. Phillips also speaks to the opportunity available to investors in Canada when it comes to funding early research.  

We speak with Dr. Ian Lewis in episode 6. He is the Principal Investigator with the Lewis Research Group and an assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary. Dr. Lewis acknowledges that struggling through work and failure is part of the human condition, but credits his support systems for the success he has found. He discusses the evolving barriers his team has faced throughout years of lab work while explaining how the collaborative Alberta Precision Exchange Program (APEX) grew from overcoming many of those early barriers.  

In episode 5, we speak with Dr. Karen Benzies who has recently been appointed the Director of Social Innovation in the Office of the Vice President (Research). Karen is also a professor in the Faculty of Nursing and adjunct research professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Calgary. Karen shares details of her new role in leading the Social Innovation Initiative at UCalgary.

The Social Innovation Initiative (SII) was developed to enable faculty to engage in social innovation by scaling existing academic experience, disciplines, and expertise to advance their efforts. The SII complements existing structures and processes by linking with social innovation-based activities, programs, support services, resources, and funding providers, including the Hunter Hub for Entrepreneurial Thinking, Innovate Calgary, Knowledge Engagement, the Office of Sustainability, Trico Foundation Social Entrepreneurship Centre, W21C, and the broader UCalgary community.

We welcome Dr. Lawrence Korngut in episode 4. He is the Director of Innovation and Commercialization at the Hotchkiss Brain Institute and Associate Professor of Neurology at the Cumming School of Medicine. Dr. Korngut is honest in admitting he spends a lot of time in the burnout zone, but stresses the importance of taking a step back often to see the bigger picture in your work. Dr. Korngut shares his approach of serendipity surface area, whereby helping others comes back to you exponentially.

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Kristina Rinker, a professor in both the Shulich School of Engineering and the Cumming School of Medicine. Dr. Rinker is also the lead on the Early Cancer Detection Initiative at the University of Calgary. Dr. Rinker explains how collaborative research led to a breakthrough method of detecting breast cancer. She describes how prioritizing the next critical step in any path toward innovation can help keep momentum within a research team.

In this episode, we speak with Dr. Joel Reardon, a 2019 Peak Scholar, from the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary. Dr. Reardon explains how companies like Google have made changes to their data collection policies in part because of his research efforts. Reardon acknowledges his success in impacting policy change but says he doesn't know where to go next. Joel's team wants to connect directly with private companies who could benefit from developing acceptable privacy policies for the data they collect.

In this first episode, host Jordan Witzel introduces us to co-host Dr. Pritma Chattha who stresses the importance of nurturing collaborations in order to cultivate new beginnings in innovation. The wrong network can become a barrier. Impact can be inspired in a field where a researcher least expects their work to lead. Pritma says the best approach is getting comfortable with being uncomfortable while admitting to the things you don't know.