WISEST

The Dino Lab has been working with the WISEST (Women in Scholarship, Engineering, Science, and Technology) program since 2018, and have hosted fifteen grade eleven students to date who have completed the program successfully.

Grade eleven girls interested in working in the Dino Lab are encouraged to consult the WISEST website for further information.

In 2020, the Dino Lab also participated in the WISEST Choices conference. This program introduces grade six girls to the university, and allows them to participate in a full day of activities focused on science. More information about the Choices program can be found here.

WISEST Summer Research Program (SRP)

Participants in the Summer Research Program work as paid research assistants on a project in an area that is underrepresented for their gender for six weeks in July and August. Young women and gender-diverse students do research in the College of Natural and Applied Sciences. To date these students have completed the following research projects.

2018

  • “Photogrammetry. Using Very New Technology to Work with a Very Old Product”
  • “Recovering Old Excavation Sites Using Aerial Photographs and Topographic Maps”

2019

  • “’X” Marks the Spot: Transferring Dig Site Coordinates from Maps to Google Earth
  • “Piecing Together Prehistoric Life: Scanning and Articulating Gorgosaurus”

2020

  • “Geographic ranges of the species living in Western North America during the Late Cretaceous Period”
  • “Summary of the Distribution of Dinosaur Species Across Western Canada and Northwestern United States of America”

2021

  • “Wapiti River and Pipestone Creek Site Map Correlation”
  • “The Distribution of Ankylosauridae, Hadrosauridae, and Ceratopsidae Dinosaurs Across Alberta”

2022

  • “Open Wide!: A Morphometric Analysis of Ornithischian Teeth”
  • “Pictures to Models – Dinosaur Photogrammetry”

2023

  • “3D Models of Tyrannosaurid Teeth for Analysis of Denticles”
  • “Tooth Mark Distribution: An Analysis of Tooth Marks on Edmontosaurus regalis Rib Specimens from the Danek Bonebed”

2024

  • “A Modernized Look at Historic Quarries in the Gobi Desert”
  • “Dinosaurs in an Albertan Ghost Town”
  • “Tooth Trails: Tyrannosaurid Tooth Measurement and Spacing”

Sound Interesting?

Those interested can find more information by consulting the WISEST SRP webpage. The Dino Lab typically takes two students each summer, and they get to choose from three proposed projects. These projects are typically a part of a graduate students (MSc or PhD) thesis work. Applications for the 2025 program open on March 3rd, 2025, and close on April 2nd.