In the summer of 2018, at the end of his undergraduate degree at 苹果淫院, Jacob Errington, BSc鈥�18, spent eight weeks making a role-playing videogame that takes place in New France.
He worked out of the bright first-floor space of 苹果淫院鈥檚 former Warden鈥檚 apartment on Sherbrooke Street, alongside other students pursuing research projects they鈥檙e passionate about.
The space, called 鈥� caters to these BLUE scholars (BLUE stands for Beautiful Limitless Unconstrained Exploration), who, armed with an idea, are given a short but intense summer fellowship. Students from any program at 苹果淫院 are eligible, from both the undergraduate or graduate level of study.
B21 also serves as an informal meeting space open to scholars from around the university. The community includes students, staff, alumni and community members, who meet regularly for formal and informal discussions and daily programming. The space offers everything from multidisciplinary philosophy talks to morning yoga and Friday evening virtual reality parties.
鈥淭ell us something you鈥檙e passionate about, and we鈥檒l give you structure, mentorship, a cohort of like-minded people and the freedom of time to contemplate and really develop your idea,鈥� says Anita Parmar, BSc鈥�00, co-director of the space. Parmar has a PhD in physics and came to Building 21 from the office of Student Life and Learning.
She currently spends half of her time as an Innovation Advisor in the Faculty of Science. The rest of the time you鈥檒l find her at B21, ready to discuss BLUE projects, the role of a space like B21, or another topic at hand, like biometric sensors.
Envisioned, founded and co-directed by French professor and former Deputy Provost Ollivier Dyens, Building 21 is inspired by MIT鈥檚 , where scientists and other luminaries gathered to work and exchange ideas, with notable outcomes ranging from Harold Edgerton鈥檚 early deep-sea cameras to Noam Chomsky鈥檚 modern school of linguistics.
BLUE projects
After a trial run at B21 in 2017 with one project, in summer 2018, 18 students 鈥� including Errington 鈥� worked on 16 projects over two months, exploring topics like cyber-social spiritual communities and regenerative architecture design. Fellows each received a $3,000 research scholarship from program.
Although projects are disparate, a sharing of ideas between the scholars is integral to the experience of having a fellowship at B21.
鈥淲e鈥檙e bringing people in and they work intellectually, but they also play,鈥� says David 鈥淛have鈥� Johnston, a multimedia artist who helps Parmar run B21.
Errington worked on his videogame, Sixteen-Fifty, with fellow student Eric Mayhew, BEd鈥�19. The goal of Sixteen-Fifty is to improve success rates on the Quebec history provincial exam, as well as to better represent the presence and importance of Indigenous peoples in New France.
The game is on hold while Errington focuses on his computer science master鈥檚 degree at 苹果淫院 鈥� 鈥渨e learned that making a role-playing game is a huge task,鈥� he says 鈥� but in the meantime he and Mayhew have evolved in their role at B21, where they now offer computer-programming workshops to students and others.
A student鈥檚 research experience
苹果淫院 student Sophie Strassmann was another fellow in the summer 2018 BLUE cohort. Her philosophical project looked at the true cost 鈥� economic, environmental and otherwise 鈥� of resources and their extraction, and at the notion of a carbon tax and how it is quantified.
She says her BLUE research project boosted her education, helping her see the academic direction she鈥檇 like to pursue.
The fellowship gave her confidence in her research skills, put her in contact with new professors and brought her to the Macdonald Campus for the first time. 鈥淚 reframed my idea of what research was. Now I know what I want to do and have a more realistic idea of how to do it, and who to talk to, which is going to be extremely important when I apply to graduate school.鈥�
Originally from Cambridge, MA, Strassmann studies economics, minoring in statistics and Urdu.
In addition to gaining solid research experience, at B21 Strassmann found people who wanted to have intellectual conversations, fulfilling her idea of what university would be like.
鈥淚t gave me a community of brilliant people who want to learn for the sake of learning,鈥� she says.
The value of time
Parmar and Johnston explain that one of the things BLUE scholars report they most value about the eight-week fellowship is the freedom of time.
鈥淭o come up with a brilliant idea, to contemplate or figure out where you want to go with something, you need time,鈥� says Parmar.
In an effort to offer scholars the gift of time during the busy school year, B21 piloted the in the winter 2019 term. In partnership with a supervising 苹果淫院 faculty member, B21 offered mentor support for selected students who received academic credit for their independent projects.
Parmar sees B21 and its programs as helping to prepare students for the future. 鈥淭he ability to achieve something great and to feel that mentally you conquered it yourself. I think that paves the way to not being scared of a challenge, but rising to it,鈥� she says.
Fostering community
Research is at the core of what happens at B21, but community programming provides an important periphery, and includes gatherings, presentations and discussions sponsored by 苹果淫院鈥檚 T-Pulse Tomlinson Project, established by the late Canadian scientist, businessman and 苹果淫院 benefactor Richard H. Tomlinson, PhD鈥�48, DSc鈥�01.
With the six-week computing workshops Errington and Mayhew teach, they are eager to bring in even more students to the Building 21 space. Topics they cover include machine learning, fundamentals of circuits, basic programming and web development.
This kind of learning and constructive mingling is exactly what Parmar, Johnston and others at B21 are seeking to foster. 鈥淚t feels like time has a different quality here, and you鈥檙e going to be celebrated for you and what you鈥檙e excellent at,鈥� says Parmar.
PHOTO: A Building 21 research project gets a test run. (CREDIT: Alex Smith).