Luke Lab is excited to announce their affiliation with the Society, Technology, and Applied Research Lab (STAR).
The STAR Lab is a research lab housed in the Department of Digital Humanities at Brock and it is dedicated to promoting and enabling research that explores the intersection of society and technology.
We are thrilled to be a part of this collaborative initiative.
Congratulations to Mehakpreet Mahey for successfully defending her thesis entitled, Can Direct Service Providers Change Their Ability to Attend in the Present Moment with Mindfulness Training in Virtual Reality? on January 21, 2025. The examination committee included Dr. Karen Campbell, Chair; Dr. Nicole Luke, Supervisor; Dr. Andrea Iaboni, External Examiner (Associate Professor, Psychiatry, University of Toronto); Dr. Rosemary Condillac, Graduate Program Director; and Dr. Maurice Feldman and Dr. Kendra Thomson, Committee Members.
We are proud of Mehak as the third graduating MA student from Dr. Luke’s lab and we are happy to see her stay on as a Research Assistant in the lab while she studies for her BCBA certification and RBA qualification in Ontario where she is setting up for clinical work like her lab mate.
Drs. Luke and Demirden traveled to Ottawa to attend the International Investigative Interviewing Research Group (iIIRG) Conference. Three days of intense workshopping, networking, and learning ensued at the beautiful Carleton University campus. Dr. Demirden presented his fellowship work and was well received.
Lab members had a fun outing, attending a lacrosse game for the first time! We joined 11,000 other people at the FirstOntario Centre in Hamilton and cheered our way through a very exciting game. It was a great chance to learn about lacrosse and to see the local crowd cheer on their heroes.
Congratulations to Gifty Owusu for successfully defending her thesis entitled, Training Preservice Behaviour Analyst Intervention Skills in a Virtual Reality Environment, on February 6, 2024. The examination committee included Dr. Dawn Zinga, Chair; Dr. Nicole Luke, Supervisor; Dr. Ellie Kazemi, External Examiner (Professor, Psychology, California State University Northridge); Dr. Rosemary Condillac, Graduate Program Director; and Dr. Laura Mullins and Dr. Julie Koudys, Committee Members.
We are proud of Gifty as the second graduating MA student from Dr. Luke’s lab and we are happy to see her stay on as a Research Assistant in the lab while she studies for her BCBA certification and RBA qualification in Ontario where she is setting up for clinical work.
We are extremely proud of our lab members who are moving on to new adventures.
We are excited to share that Nikki Bajcar will be starting her PhD in Health Professions Education Research at the University of Toronto this September 2023. Nikki is passionate about applying ABA principles to curriculum development and assessment in training new clinicians in the field.
Since January 2023, Brittney Sureshkumar started her new role as a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst for the Wellington-Catholic School Board. Her role includes collaborating in the development of educational programs related to the treatment of autism and other developmental disorders, including behaviour support plans for challenging and complex behaviours in the classroom and skill acquisition programs for teaching verbal behaviour, social skills, daily living skills, and classroom readiness skills.
We wish them the best of luck in their new roles!
Our lab had the opportunity to try out VR equipment at a state-of-the-art facility in Toronto where we played together in a multi-player adventure and took home the gold coins! We had lots of fun and learned about new advances in VR technology and equipment.
Congratulations to Qi Wan for successfully completing her Major Research Paper (MRP) entitled, Virtual Reality Facilitated Mindfulness-Based Practice: An Innovative Resource for Neurodiverse Communities! The paper was completed under the supervision of Dr. Maureen Connelly and Nicole served as a reader.
Qi celebrated her graduation from the Applied Disability Studies program in June, having completed her coursework and MRP for the Master of Applied Disability Studies. We are enormously proud of Qi and her accomplishments and are happy to have her continue as a Research Assistant in our lab while she pursues clinical work and decides her next academic steps.
Several lab members (Gifty Owusu and Qi Wan) had the opportunity to travel to Vancouver to present their research with Pathstone Mental Health at the 2023 Canadian Collaborative Mental Health Care Conference. We shared our poster, “Delivery of Mental Health Services for Ontarian Youth Using CBT in Virtual Reality.” The conference was an amazing opportunity to connect with professionals and academics from all over Canada and to learn about the work being done to improve the lives of Canadians in mental health.
