UWSpace

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    Exploring the importance of community freezers and a country food box distribution program in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, Northwest Territories, Canada
    (University of Waterloo, 2025-12-23) Yurris, Aimee Caroline
    Background: Consuming food harvested from the land, water, and sky (country food) is important for the physical and cultural wellbeing of Inuvialuit. Community freezers are infrastructure intended to support the safe storage of country foods. Further, community freezers have the potential to play a role in food-related programming, such as country food distribution programs. Despite the prevalence of community freezers across Inuit Nunangat, there are few published studies evaluating the implementation and impact of these spaces. Objectives: The specific objectives of this thesis are to describe the use, importance, strengths and barriers, and overall outcomes of the implementation of community freezers in the context of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, and to describe the importance, strengths, and areas for improvement of the Inuvialuit Community Economic Development Organization country food box distribution program as a program run in connection to community freezers across the region. Methods: Using a qualitative case study design, this project involved semi-structured interviews with community members (n=42) who use the community freezer(s) or could potentially use the community freezer(s) in Paulatuk and Tuktoyaktuk, as well as semi-structured interviews with individuals responsible for managing community freezers (n=7) across Inuvialuit Settlement Region communities. Data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis, drawing upon participatory analysis techniques with local community researchers to ensure that results reflect community contexts and realities. Results: The findings describe the importance of freezer space and supplies for storing food (i.e., bins, Ziploc bags, and vacuum sealers) for access to country food, particularly given the number of factors such as cost of gas and equipment that impact community members’ ability to engage in harvesting practices. Despite different community freezer management practices used across the communities of Paulatuk and Tuktoyaktuk, community members in both communities experienced benefits from having and using a community freezer. Such benefits include increased access to freezer space and enjoying increased access to country foods via programs run through the community freezer. Across both communities, community freezers enable the sharing of country foods, enable the storage of larger food items and large quantities of food, and support Inuvialuit culture, way of life, and wellbeing. Challenges with community freezers include lack of communication and awareness about the freezer, reliability of the freezer, ensuring food safety and organization, and the cost and time required for managing and maintaining community freezers. The findings also describe the importance of the Inuvialuit Community Economic Development Organization country food box distribution program. Community members expressed that the country food boxes increase their access to country food and provide support for harvesters who contribute foods to the program. Strengths of the program include the convenience of the foods included in the boxes, variety and the ability to try new foods, and that the program enables the sharing of country food. Suggested areas for improvement include increasing portion size and knowing where and who the harvested foods came from. Conclusion: Reliable and sufficient storage for country foods is an important component of food security in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region. This project has made an important contribution to the literature on the importance of community freezers in the Western Arctic and provides valuable evidence for communities across the Inuvialuit Settlement Region seeking to advocate for additional investment into community freezers. This study also contributes valuable information to the ongoing improvement of the Inuvialuit Community Economic Development Organization country food box distribution program, highlighting both strengths and potential areas for improvement.
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    Bioptic Telescopic Spectacles and Driving Rehabilitation for People with Age-Related Macular Degeneration: A Pilot Project
    (University of Waterloo, 2025-12-23) Khakneshin, Sahar
    Introduction Driving is a multifactorial task of which vision is a component. A person’s ability to meet requirements to gain or maintain a driver’s license may be compromised by visual impairments (VI) caused by ocular diseases such as Age-related Macular Degeneration (AMD). However, vision is only one component of safe driving. Programs aimed at permitting and individually assessing a person’s ability to drive are important for improving the quality of life of Canadians living with VI whose ability to safely drive may be in question. Purpose In Ontario in October 2020, the Highway Traffic Act was amended to allow the use of [bioptic] telescopes to meet provincial visual acuity requirements for Class G licensure for the first time. pending successful completion of an on-road driving assessment while using the telescope (MTO Bioptic Telescope Program). The George & Judy Woo Centre for Sight Enhancement (CSE) in Waterloo, Ontario has formulated a training protocol involving both fitting and training with a bioptic telescope for driving. The aim of this study aim was to determine whether the program sufficiently prepares individuals with AMD to effectively use their bioptic telescope, as determined by success in a simulated in-car evaluation. Methods The study aimed to recruit up to 10 participants with AMD who had lost their driver’s license within the last 5 years, met MTO Bioptic Telescope Program visual requirements and did not suffer from motion sickness or cognitive impairment (by self-report). Visual function and visual perceptual testing as well as bioptic telescope fitting were administered. Participants also proceeded into the CSE training program which included 3-5 training sessions and a counselling session. Participants’ driving skills and use of bioptic telescope(s) were then assessed in a virtual reality SUV driving simulator both with and without the telescope. Results Three participants (mean age of 74 years, male) were enrolled and completed the study. Visual parameters met the eligibility criteria (corrected visual acuity ranged from 0.35logMAR (20/50) to 0.77logMAR (20/126), contrast sensitivity ranged from 1.00-1.45logCS units and visual fields were full peripherally). All three participants had binocular central scotomas identified on Humphrey monocular full field tests and Nidek microperimetry. However, no central scotoma was evident on the Humphrey Estermann binocular field assessment. Each participant was fit with a bioptic telescope (2.2-3x magnification) and completed three training sessions. All participants passed the Scan Course but failed the other visual perceptual tests (Useful Field of View, Trail Making, Motor Free Visual Perceptual Test-4). Participant 3 failed the Montreal Cognitive Assessment for the Blind and Visually Impaired. In the final assessment, Participant 1 successfully completed the driving simulation with and without the telescope with no critical driving errors. Participant 2 passed only with the telescope which was used appropriately to identify traffic and speed signs. Participant 3, despite having the best visual acuity, failed under both conditions with critical errors. Conclusion Although further research is required, several important findings to date have been identified. First, the Esterman binocular visual field test cannot be solely used to determine the full field of those with a potential central deficit. Second, the visual perceptual tests conducted with the cut-offs provided, did not definitively identify those individuals that may not be suitable for driving with bioptics; a functional assessment appears to continue to be the gold standard. Third, full medical evaluation should be conducted prior to the visual function evaluation to help identify those that are not safe driving due to non-visual reasons. Finally, it appears that the CSE Bioptic Fitting and Training Protocol may effectively enable participants to learn to apply the fundamental skills required for using a bioptic telescope in a driving situation.
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    Cues, Clones, and Cars: Access Control Issues in Customized Android
    (University of Waterloo, 2025-12-23) Vyas, Parjanya
    Android’s open-source design and extensive customization have fueled its dominance across smartphones, automotive systems, wearables, and other domains. This flexibility, however, introduces serious security challenges, particularly in the enforcement of access control. Prior research has investigated inconsistencies within the framework, across layers, and across Android versions, yet important gaps remain, especially in detecting vendor-introduced data-driven customizations, replicated APIs, and platform-specific adaptations (e.g., automotive) that are difficult to capture with existing techniques. This dissertation investigates how Android contextual features can be systematically leveraged to uncover access control vulnerabilities that evade prior analyses. It presents four main contributions: - Bluebird: a probabilistic inference framework that derives access control requirements from application-side sensitivity indicators (UI cues and app-side access control). By fusing NLP-driven signals with static analysis, Bluebird identifies APIs whose protections do not match implied sensitivity. Applied to 14 ROMs, Bluebird flagged 391 likely under-protected private APIs.% and supported 11 proof-of-concept exploits. - Ariadne: a static-analysis based technique built around a novel access control dependency graph abstraction that models explicit and inferred access control relationships among framework data holders. Ariadne detects inconsistencies introduced by data-driven vendor customizations that traditional tools miss. Evaluated on AOSP and vendor ROMs, it discovered 30 unique inconsistencies and enabled 13 proof-of-concept exploits. - RepFinder: a large-scale measurement pipeline that identifies duplicated or ``Replica'' APIs created via copy-paste editing and evaluates their access control enforcement. Analyzing 342 ROMs from 10 vendors, RepFinder found replication to be widespread (~141 Replicas/ROM on average) and that a significant fraction (37% on average) of Replicas are under-protected. - AutoAcRaptor: a platform-specific static analysis framework for AAOS that identifies automotive entry points and evaluates both access control and feature-check enforcement. Applied to 10 AAOS ROMs, AutoAcRaptor reported an average of 23 auto feature and access control anomalies per ROM. Collectively, these contributions show that Android contextual features such as app-side sensitivity indicators, framework data holders, and platform-specific service registrations can be systematically harnessed to reveal overlooked access control vulnerabilities. They also demonstrate that techniques for identifying framework customization-induced vulnerabilities can be adapted to emerging Android-based platforms such as Android Automotive OS by accounting for platform-specific differences. Beyond these immediate contributions, this work opens two broader research directions. First, the contextual features explored in this work may not be exhaustive. Future research should aim to identify additional contextual signals—potentially through automated discovery—and explore an integration framework that makes it easy to incorporate new analyses into a unified solution. Second, the adaptation of these techniques to other Android-based platforms remains an open challenge. While AutoAcRaptor demonstrates feasibility for Android Automotive, other platforms such as Android TV, Wear OS, and Android XR present unique differences that require dedicated investigation to determine how well these methods generalize and what extensions are needed.
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    Pragmatica: A VR Tool for Autonomous Practice During Language Therapy
    (University of Waterloo, 2025-12-23) Prasad, Karthik
    Aphasia is a communication disorder that affects millions worldwide, but those affected by aphasia have limited access to in-person therapy. They compensate for this with at-home practice, but existing tools are either ineffective or require a clinician to be present. We present Pragmatica, a VR platform that enables people with aphasia to practice their communication skills independently at home through immersive, context-rich activities. In an eight-week case study, we compared Pragmatica with traditional therapy (4 participants per group). With no detected difference in Quick Aphasia Battery (QAB) scores, VR participants engaged in substantial practice (31 hours, 366 activities) and described the VR experience as engaging, fun, and motivating, but had a limited variety of relevant and unique activities. Our study contributes empirical evidence of VR’s feasibility for autonomous language practice, as well as design insights and considerations for accessible, aphasia-friendly VR systems (flexible controls, multi-modal prompts and inputs).
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    Understanding International Graduate Students' Housing Experiences.
    (University of Waterloo, 2025-12-23) Mohammed, Saluhu
    The global rise in international graduate student mobility has intensified housing pressures in host cities, exposing gaps in institutional support and affordable housing provision. In Canada, particularly in Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario, international graduate students experience growing difficulty securing adequate and affordable accommodation. Despite their financial and academic contributions, this group remains underrepresented in housing policy and planning research. The main problem addressed in this study is the mismatch between increasing international graduate enrolments and the inadequate housing infrastructure and policies designed to meet their needs. Existing research focuses largely on undergraduate student housing or general urban affordability, leaving a significant research gap concerning the lived experiences of international graduate students and the structural factors shaping these outcomes. The study draws on Housing Pathway Theory (Clapham, 2002, 2005) as its primary theoretical framework, emphasizing housing as a dynamic, non-linear process shaped by the interaction between individual agency and structural constraints. To enhance explanatory depth, the study integrates Bourdieu’s conceptual triad of habitus, capita, and field (1984,1986). This combined framework highlights how different forms of capital, economic, cultural, and social interact within the housing field to influence students’ pathways, constraints, and adaptive strategies. Together, these theories explain how international graduate students navigate the tension between structural housing limitations and their personal resources, revealing how inequalities in capital shape distinct housing trajectories. The research employed a mixed-methods, cross-sectional and case study design. Primary data were collected through an anonymous online survey and follow-up interviews to international graduate students who opted to be interviewed. Purposive and snowball sampling yielded 125 valid responses from an initial 136. Quantitative data were analyzed descriptively using SPSS (Version 28) to identify patterns of affordability, accessibility, and housing satisfaction, while qualitative responses underwent thematic analysis using NVivo 15 to interpret lived experiences and coping strategies. The major findings reveal that international graduate students face acute housing precarity, with affordability, discrimination, and limited information networks as central challenges. High rents and the dominance of PBSA developments have marginalized students with limited financial capital. Cultural and social capital strongly influenced housing outcomes: those with local networks or prior Canadian experience navigated markets more effectively. Many respondents reported overcrowded, temporary, or substandard conditions that negatively affected their well-being and academic performance. The findings also expose structural inequalities embedded in municipal housing markets and institutional policies, which privilege domestic or undergraduate cohorts. Policy implication highlights the need for universities, municipal authorities, and provincial housing agencies to develop integrated housing strategies that recognize international graduate students as a distinct and vulnerable demographic. Recommendations include expanding affordable housing supply through university–municipal partnerships, improving access to tenant education and legal resources, and ensuring that institutional housing policies reflect the diversity of students’ economic and cultural needs. By centering international graduate students lived experiences, this study contributes to academic discourse on housing inequality and provides actionable insights for designing inclusive and sustainable student housing frameworks.