The Pulse: July 6, 2022

If you have been thinking about a challenge that might be tackled with neurotechnology, this summer provides an opportunity to get some help from students and recent grads who are looking for real-world problems to solve.

Researchers, industry representatives, health practitioners, and patient advocates are invited to be "problem providers" for NeurAlbertaTech's second annual natHACKS event, a 64-hour hackathon focused on the brain-computer interface, which is taking place from July 29 to Aug. 1 in Edmonton, Calgary, and Lethbridge.

The event is powered by sponsors such as Alberta Innovates and the National Research Council of Canada, among others. It offers teams a chance to hack out a solution on one of four tracks: rehabilitation, research, or recreation, plus a "junior" track for first-timers. The senior streams offer prize money of $2,000 for first place and $1,000 for second, and the junior track offers $1,000 to the winner. Winners will also be eligible for in-kind support from startup service providers.

Since its inaugural and virtual debut in 2021, natHACKS has grown. This year's iteration is aiming to provide "something for everyone," not only for students but also for the neurotech innovation space, said Eden Redman, executive director of NeurAlbertaTech.

"If you're a clinician or researcher, we have opportunities to mentor or judge at the hackathon," he said. "Or if you have an idea or two on the back burner, you can provide those as challenges to get zero-cost R&D from a team of talented students and recent grads."

A pitch night for neurotech problems to solve will be held online on July 15. Contact NeurAlbertaTech if you have a problem to pitch.

The application deadline for hackathon participants is July 8 for those who want access to hardware. The absolute deadline to register is July 15.

• McCauley residents, the chair of the Chinatown and Area Business Association, and a representative of the Edmonton branch of the Ukrainian National Federation have signed a news release voicing concern over Boyle Street Community Services' move a few blocks north from its current location near Rogers Place to 10010 107A Avenue. "McCauley is renowned for its inclusiveness and compassion towards vulnerable individuals," the release says. "But it is beyond McCauley's capacity to host any additional social agencies ... particularly within one block of the city's largest K to 12 school." Elliott Tanti with BSCS said there's work to do with the community but highlighted common goals. "We all want the same things. We want safer, more inclusive communities," he said. Renovation of the building is scheduled to begin soon, Global News reports.
• Deportation orders have been halted for two Edmonton families facing major risks in their home countries. A family of four previously denied refugee status has had their order paused after meeting Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault, who is also MP for Edmonton Centre, and a Filipino mother was permitted to stay after becoming undocumented following alleged employer abuse while she was here as a temporary foreign worker. The mother, Evangeline Cayanan, is also a volunteer with the advocacy organization Migrante Alberta, which supported the two families. Both have now applied to remain in Canada on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
• Several sheets of glass fell off the side of the 29th floor of the Stantec Tower on the evening of July 4, which shattered on the street and two parked cars. A representative of ICE District, which owns the building, said scaffolding has been installed to shelter uncovered walkways around the tower while the organization applies protective film to some windows. No one was injured in the event. A single sheet also fell from the 29th floor last summer, CTV News reports.
• City council passed first reading of a bylaw to prohibit businesses from giving out single-use plastic items and to require a minimum fee for reusable bags. Edmontonians will be invited to comment on the bylaw at a public hearing in September. If passed, the bylaw would take effect on July 1, 2023. Last month, the federal government also passed regulations banning the manufacturing and importing of some plastics by December, with the aim of phasing out single-use plastics by 2030.
• Swoop Flight WO 264, a Boeing 737-800 bound from Edmonton to Halifax on July 4, had its landing gear damaged during takeoff and spent two hours circling Edmonton to burn off excess fuel before landing safely. Six crew members and 189 passengers were on board. Swoop said its pilots made the call to divert the flight back to Edmonton "[out] of an abundance of caution."
• Alberta Health Services announced that five new ambulances are now operating in Edmonton, along with four new Non-Ambulance Transport vehicles. "We continue to see a large increase in call volume that is keeping EMS crews busy, and these new ambulances and their paramedic crews are already hard at work serving Albertans," said Darren Sandbeck, chief paramedic and senior provincial director of AHS EMS.
• The province has relaunched the Community Revitalization Levy program, which lets municipalities borrow against future property tax income to finance the redevelopment of areas where existing infrastructure and land is unappealing to the private sector. The program was paused in 2013 to undergo review. Three of Alberta's five CRLs are located in Edmonton — in The Quarters, Belvedere, and Downtown.

On this day in 1950, the city was sniffing out a location for a new zoo.

As part of the search, the city invited a representative from the famous St. Louis Zoo to help advise on locations. Edmonton's first such attraction opened in the 1920s at Borden Park, but by the middle of the century, the city was looking to use the land to expand Northlands Park. Several potential homes for the zoo were suggested, including Whitemud Park, Mill Creek, and Forest Heights.

Eventually, the city settled on Laurier Park, nestled in the river valley. On Canada Day in 1959, the Storyland children's zoo opened its gates to an excited public, according to the Edmonton Journal. The $500,000 project carried a fairy-tale theme, including a castlesque front gate, colourful cottages, and at least one terrifying Humpty Dumpty animatronic.

But, of course, the animals were the main attraction at the children's zoo, which hosted everything from horses and bear cubs to seals and tropical fish. The centre, later renamed the Edmonton Valley Zoo, remained a popular attraction in the city for decades. Then, in 1984, city council voted on a Master Plan that would see expansion and updating for the zoo and similar work a decade later.

By the early-2000s, the thinking around zoos was much different from the way it had been at the zoo's inception. Conservation, research, and public education were what people expected of a modern zoo. An updated plan developed in 2005 worked towards those goals, as well as aiming to provide better care for its animal inhabitants. Meanwhile, activists continue to push for Lucy the elephant to be moved to a sanctuary; zoo officials have resisted, saying the risks of moving her would outweigh the benefits.

The Valley Zoo is in the midst of another extensive renewal. The Nature's Wild Backyard plan began construction on new exhibits and educational attractions in 2017. While the first phase of the renovations is complete, more are planned for the future.

Like many other attractions in the city, the Valley Zoo has had to adapt to the changes brought on by the pandemic. And COVID-19 is not the only illness that has been causing concerns of late — earlier this year, the zoo isolated its avian exhibits from the public to protect the animals from a deadly strain of bird flu.

This is based on a clipping found on Vintage Edmonton, a daily look at Edmonton's history from armchair archivist @revRecluse — follow @VintageEdmonton for daily ephemera via Twitter.