Now that February’s snow is turning into March puddles, it’s time to start booking walking meetings outside on the Rideau Canal pathways and end the official portion of my treadmill desk writer-in-residence post in the Discovery Centre at Carleton University. Throughout February, I met with students and staff — including Samantha Munro, the university’s Healthy Workplace Coordinator, pictured…
Carleton University cognitive science professor Jim Davies, director of the Science of Imagination Laboratory and the author of Riveted: The Science of Why Jokes Make Us Laugh, Movies Make Us Cry, and Religion Makes Us Feel One with the Universe, had never used a treadmill desk before he built one about two years ago. “I decided I wanted one,” he says, “and just made it.” Davies,…
Last week, I went to Carleton University’s Human Computer Interaction building to interview Richard Beranek, the CEO and co-founder of Ottawa-based rehabilitation robotics company GaitTronics, a two-year-old spin-off from the university’s Advanced Biomechatronics and Locomotion Laboratory. With industrial design support from local consultancy The Federal, Beranek and his colleagues have created SoloWalk, which is essentially a robot that can…
Back in November, I spent a day on the job with Canada Post letter carrier (sorry, delivery agent) Christine Murray in the west end of Ottawa. Just over a month later, Canada Post announced its plan to phase out home delivery, and eliminate 8,000 jobs. This has been a controversial decision. There is debate over…
I tethered myself to two new pieces of technology the week after Thanksgiving…. My Canadian Business story on trying out a treadmill desk is now online.
Excited about my interview tomorrow with Amanda Boxtel, executive director of the Bridging Bionics Foundation and an ambassador for Ekso Bionics. Paralyzed in a ski accident in 1992, she is walking again with help from an exoskeleton. Here’s her incredible story:
I just wrapped up two fascinating days of research at the Challenging Environment Assessment Laboratory (aka CEAL), part of Toronto Rehab’s iDAPT Centre. The lab, a world leader in rehabilitation research, is home to dozens of projects aimed at making our streets, homes and workplaces safer. One of its goals is help prevent injuries before they…
born to walk (and paddleboard) 