News

  • Luke Lab grows up

    Wednesday, August 30, 2023 | By

    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!

    Categories: Lab news

  • Luke Lab goes to Sandbox VR!

    Sunday, July 30, 2023 | By

    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.

     

    Categories: Lab news

  • Congratulations Qi!

    Friday, June 30, 2023 | By

    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.

  • Luke Lab goes to Vancouver!

    Thursday, June 15, 2023 | By

    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.

    Categories: Lab news

  • Gingerbread Folk

    Sunday, January 15, 2023 | By

    It was a battle of the creative arts and, in the end, all gingerbread folk were victorious!

    Graphic image of gingerbread figure

    Categories: Lab news

  • Luke Lab goes to East Izakaya!

    Friday, December 30, 2022 | By

    December 2022 

    Nicole joined her teammates, Gifty, Joseph, Avery, Qi, and Michael (our newest and youngest recruit by far 😉) for lunch at East Izakaya in St Catherines. It was super to catch up in person, try some new foods, learn how to use chopsticks, and play some games. Watch for news updates on the gingerbread avatars! 

    Lab members gathered around dining table at a restaurant.

    Categories: Lab news

  • Luke Lab goes to ONTABA!

    Friday, December 02, 2022 | By

    December 2022 

    Avery, Nikki, and Brittney traveled to Toronto for the 2022 ONTABACon (https://ontaba.org). There they shared the poster from Dublin with a new audience. Qi and Gifty also participated in ONTABACon. Qi shared a presentation with her Brock colleagues titled, “Exploratory Analysis of Sentiment Toward ABA on Twitter.” Gifty shared a poster with her Brock colleagues titled, “Trends in Practicum Experiences.” It was a great opportunity to get to know the local behaviour analysis community and connect with classmates and friends. 

    Lab students standing in front of research poster.

    Categories: Lab news

  • Luke Lab goes to Dublin!

    Saturday, September 03, 2022 | By

    September 2022 

    Avery, Nikki, Brittney, and Nicole traveled to Dublin, Ireland, for the ABAI 11th International Conference (https://www.abainternational.org/events/program-details/summary.aspx?intConvId=71&a=r). There they shared their poster titled, “Teaching Graduate Students in Behaviour Analysis to Work with Individuals with Disabilities Using Synchronous Virtual Reality.” We had a wonderful time exploring the beautiful city of Dublin and meeting up with colleagues and friends at the conference. 

     Lab members in front of their poster presentation

    Categories: Lab news

  • Congratulations Avery!

    Thursday, May 05, 2022 | By

    Congratulations to Avery Keith for successfully defending her thesis entitled, Acquisition of Joint Attention Skills in Children with Cortical Visual Impairment, on January 20th, 2022! The examination committee included Tony Volk, Chair; Nicole Luke, Supervisor; Hannah Hoch, External Examiner (Adjunct Assistant Professor, Psychology, Barnard College); Rosemary Condillac, Graduate Program Director; and Priscilla Burnham Riosa and Veena Dwivedi, Committee Members.

    Avery is proud to be the first graduating MA student from Dr. Luke’s lab and is happy to see the Luke Lab develop and expand with each new MA student! Going forward, Avery is excited to start a new job in the field of applied behaviour analysis and to continue pursuing her diverse research interests alongside the Luke Lab. She will be presenting her research at the upcoming annual convention of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) held in Boston, Massachusetts in May 2022, as well as at their international conference in Dublin, Ireland, in September 2022. Avery is also currently working towards attaining her graduate-level certification in behaviour analysis.

    Categories: Lab news