Recent changes to admission policies for UWindsor’s Liberal Arts and Professional Studies program are providing broader opportunities for mature students to complete a degree.

Graduates of community colleges can receive advanced standing in the liberal arts program—and an opportunity to pursue their personal and career interests on a flexible schedule. The program has enrolled college graduates from such areas as business, dental hygiene, and early childhood education.

Kiran Saini considers herself “blessed” to have this opportunity. Holding a diploma in early childhood education from St. Clair College, the 32-year-old mother of two says enrolling in University is working out so far.

“A university degree just opens up more doors,” she says. “You can do a lot of post-graduate diplomas after this degree.”

Lecturer and program coordinator Tim Brunet says that this type of program is known as an “upside-down” degree because it is suited to people already working who want to return to university to expand their knowledge and qualifications. He says students can delve into nearly every faculty and build a degree that suits their personal needs and interests. This includes the ability to study online, part-time or full-time. 

Students in the program may study languages, psychology, fine arts, philosophy, business, political science, history and sociology, as well as new interdisciplinary courses in knowledge management, diffusion of innovations, online collaboration, and auctions.

“The primary goal of the degree is that students will engage in the kind of academic exploration that will promote a more fulfilling and exciting approach to their life and career,” says Brunet.

Find more information on the liberal arts program on its website.

Representatives will also be on hand during the University’s open house on Saturday, November 7, for the information fair in the CAW Student Centre’s Ambassador Auditorium, and in a special session at 2 p.m. in room 110, Odette Building.

A University of Windsor researcher is working to help injured workers return to the job more quickly and safely.

Joel Cort, an associate professor of kinesiology, uses computer software to simulate the precise movements a human body performs when working on an automotive plant’s assembly line. He is digitally recreating automotive assembly stations in an effort to improve return-to-work protocols for those who may have experienced a work-related injury.

“We are using advanced ergonomics tools to watch computer mannequins literally go through the exact motions a worker would go through, to help understand where and how injury occurred,” says Dr. Cort.

The software resembles a video game where the user, or researcher, gives commands and the digital mannequin responds. Predictive motion algorithms are calculated to demonstrate what is physically required to carry out a task, including how the muscles move during a task and taking into consideration how much a tool weighs, or how much force is required to install a part.

“This technology gives me the opportunity to acts like a movie director, like the Martin Scorsese of ergonomic research,” says Cort. “I direct the mannequin, the way you’d direct an actor, with special interest in estimating how safe it is for a person to pose, grasp, bend, sit, stand or apply force.”

His lab created a digital library of human movement by hooking people up to monitors and having them act out the exact movements required to work at a particular assembly plant workstation. They logged the movements, including how much force is required and how a body bends.

“Ultimately we want to use proactive ergonomics and design better workstations before they are physically built,” says Cort. “However, in the event of a work-related musculoskeletal injury, we can provide information from ergonomics software to healthcare professionals, to aid in both the design of rehabilitation programs and return-to-work decisions.”

The goal of the simulation program is to create a video that explains exactly what a worker’s body was doing on the job, so doctors and physical therapists can help tailor return-to-work programs.

The video also helps identify how a worker’s physical capacity has changed after an injury. When doctors fill out return-to-work protocols for rehabilitated workers, they will be able to assess more accurately which workstations may be off-limits, and help ensure workers are placed in jobs that do not put them at risk of re-injury.

“It’s in the best interest of everyone: the company, the insurance provider and the union, to keep workers safe and healthy,” says Cort. “Research proves that good ergonomics keeps people healthy, increases the quality of job, boosts moral and reduces costs associated with injuries.”

The project is a collaboration between Cort, the insurance provider Great West Life, Ford Motor Company’s assembly plant in Oakville, and MITACS, a not-for-profit organization that designs and delivers research and training programs in Canada. The simulation software is designed by Siemens.

Two members of the new federal cabinet sworn in Wednesday have connections to the University of Windsor.

Alumnus Navdeep Singh Bains (MBA 2001), MP for Mississauga-Malton, took on the portfolio of minister of innovation, science and economic development.

The new minister of science, Kirsty Duncan (MP Etobicoke North), is a former member of the UWindsor faculty, having taught meteorology, climatology, and climate change here from 1993 to 2000.

Prime minister Justin Trudeau appointed 30 members to his cabinet.