Undergraduate Research at DeGroote

Digital Literacy and Critical Thinking: Helping Older Adults Navigate Misinformation

Supervisor: Milena Head (MDTRC)

This research seeks to identify effective strategies that empower older adults to critically evaluate online content and build resilience against misinformation.

The show must go on: Supporting Canadian professional musicians

Supervisor: Catherine Connelly (MCREW)

Musicians often live at or near the poverty line and endure difficult working conditions. In collaboration with four partner organizations, we will produce a typology of gigs that musicians should seek and avoid, and strategies that musicians can use when negotiating with venues and booking agents. The student will coordinate and conduct interviews.

Improving Volunteer Participation in Food Bank Operations

Supervisor: Nooshin Salari

This project examines the growing challenge of volunteer retention in Canadian food banks, where rising community demand coincides with declining volunteer participation. To build a strong foundation for predictive modeling and managerial recommendations, we require a team of RAs to clean, structure, and analyze early datasets provided by the Compass foodbank organization of Mississagua.

Defense Procurement Adoption and Marketing of Dual-use Technologies

Supervisor: Sash Vaid

This project investigates the strategic marketing implications of dual-use technologies—tools originally developed for defense but now repurposed for civilian markets such as retail and online gambling. The research combines conceptual development with empirical field experiments, aiming to create a dashboard that maps commercialization pathways and performance outcomes.

Roving Support for Equity-based Co-Creation Research at McMaster

Supervisor: Gillian Mulvale

The McMaster Equity-based Co-Creation (EqCC) Hub has recently been approved as a Core Research Platform to support EqCC capacity development across the academic and broader community. The student will expand our capacity to provide methodological support for EqCC research projects from colleagues across the DeGroote and McMaster communities.

Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) Marketing Strategy

Supervisor: Ruhai Wu

A collaboration with a local digital marketing agency to (i) analyze proprietary data to quantify the growth and business impact of AEO, (ii) develop theory-driven hypotheses on AEO strategies, and (iii) conduct field experiments to test their effectiveness.

Time to Completion of a PhD: An Analysis Based on Finance Program Data

Supervisors: Trevor Chamberlain, Anna Danielova, and Hesam Shahriari

An investigation into factors influencing the time to completion and the impact of time-to-completion on a student’s initial job placement for Finance PhD programs. The study will use the R-nought model, commonly used in demography and epidemiology, to quantify supervisor-student productivity and explain the supply-demand dynamics in the academic labour market.

Understanding Neurological Motivation with Social Robots

Supervisor: Shane Saunderson

This project examines whether robot attentional cues affect persistence during the formation of new behaviors (e.g. posture, exercise) and how associated neural processes (e.g. EEG) compare to those involved with human motivation. Through HRI lab experiments we hope to identify social robots as potential motivators of new behavior development.

Diffusing a Community-Engaged Documentary from Kenya: Sharing Marginalized Voices and Models of University–Community Impact

Supervisor: Benson Honig

We have produced a documentary grounded in a community-engaged research project conducted in Kenya with a marginalized community of entrepreneurs through the Reframery incubator at the CRCE. This project will diffuse the film through curated screenings, partner-led events, and digital channels to amplify participants’ stories, mobilize research insights, and demonstrate creative, ethical ways universities can contribute to marginalized communities locally and globally.

Assessing Nutritional Value of Food served on McMaster University campus

Supervisor: Behrouz Bakhtiari

This project analyzes food items offered at campus restaurants by comparing their nutritional profiles against established frameworks, including Front-of-Pack (FOP) labeling and Ontario’s PPM 150 guidelines, with a goal of developping actionable recommendations for improving campus food environments and promoting healthier eating habits among students.

Analysis of Nursing and Social Work careers

Supervisor: Erin Reid

A SSHRC-funded study of careers in women-dominated professions. Seeking support for an undergraduate student to assist with data organization, simple data analysis, a local presentation of results, and the development of a professional, public-facing report to share with research participants and relevant institutions.

Exploring the Role of AI in the Canadian Nuclear Sector

Supervisor: Goran Calic

This research addresses chronic cost overruns and schedule delays in nuclear energy projects. We are developing a Nuclear Construction Digital Twin: a stochastic, Monte Carlo-based platform that predicts risk by modeling the complex interplay between engineering tasks and organizational disruptions.

Policy Shocks in Quantitative Marketing

Supervisor: Michael Wu

This project will explore how government level policy shocks affect consumption. It will use an empirical causal inference approach to study how, as a result of such policy shocks, consumers often adjust their spending or socioeconomic patterns.

Consumer Decision-Making: Self-Control and Vice/Virtue Decisions

Supervisor: Chris Ling

An investigation into the factors that influence self-control in consumer choices, particularly in vice/virtue decisions (e.g., indulgence vs. restraint). The goal is to study the implications for marketing and public policy.

Neurophysiological synchrony at the Individual and Team Levels – Multiple programs

Supervisor: Yair Berson

For a study on the effects of rudeness on neurophysiological functioning we are in the process of collecting a large dataset collected at the LIVElab. Students will be involved in configuration and organization of neurophysiological data and in data analyses. Involvement in these projects will expose students to research procedures and advanced statistics.

Consumer Political Orientation and Green Purchase Intention

Supervisor: Christine Lesage

This project investigates how political identities influences green purchase decisions. It addresses a core question: Can message framing depolarize consumer reactions to green innovation? Student responsibilites include: literature review, assisting in designing experimental stimuli, and assisting in data collection and questionnaire development.

Artificial Intelligence and Global Value Chains: Automation and Manufacturing Coordination in Canada and China

Supervisor: Addisu Lashitew

This project examines AI-driven value chain reintegration (reshoring of activities previously offshored) in manufacturing through a comparative analysis of Canada and China. By examining patterns of trade and investment between China and Canada, it will shed new light on the competitiveness and employment effects of emerging automation trends. The student will be engaged in literature and policy review.

BCom and eHealth student Bilal Khan shares learnings from conducting his own hands-on research at DeGroote as an undergrad student.

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