Every year, students fill the Robbins Health Learning Centre as they share their research and findings with the MacEwan community. On April 23, over 300 students will present their research with posters, oral presentations, performances and creative installations at Student Research Day.

 Before heading through the halls to learn about the hundreds of topics our students are investigating, take a moment to look back at some of the incredible student research projects we’ve shared over the last year with our Majoring in Curiosity series.

Sometimes, research is just objectively cool. We featured some students who looked at surprising and interesting questions – like finding evidence of giant sloths in Alberta.

It’s no secret that university students share a love of learning. Some of our students focused on ways we learn (and teach), from learning to speak all the way to cramming for final exams.

Technology is all around us, and sometimes even affects how we interact with the people around us. We shared student research into wearable tech, artificial intelligence and even using virtual reality to overcome lifelong fears.

Health can cover a broad spectrum of topics, from our literal bones to communicable disease transmission to reliable access to care, and our students covered them all.

Humans affect the environment they live in, but those alterations can be positive or negative. We shared student research on an app that encourages picking up trash, the ways media portrayal affects our view of the environment, squirrels developing self-control and more.

And as incredible as our curious, driven students are, they’re also supported by faculty every step of the way. We’ve recently celebrated some of our outstanding faculty scholars with research awards.

Dr. Emily Milne will receive the 2026 Distinguished Researcher Award at Spring Convocation for her community-engaged research into educational inequities in school divisions.

The first-ever recipient of the Emerging Scholar Award is Dr. Joshua Miller, whose work with wildlife management and conservation has made a real impact.

We’ve also announced a new, tiered format for our Chancellor’s Research Chairs. Dr. Sandy Jung and Dr. Fernando Ruiz-Angulo will hold Tier 1 Chair positions for three years. Tier 2 Chairs Dr. Katie Biittner, Dr. Mohammed Elmorsy, Dr. Emilie LeBel, Dr. Etayankara (Murli) Muralidharan and Dr. Ross Shaw will hold their positions for two years.