UVicSpace | Institutional Repository
UVicSpace is the University of Victoria’s open access scholarship and learning repository. It preserves and provides access to the digital scholarly works of UVic faculty, students, staff, and partners. Items in UVicSpace are organized into collections, each belonging to a community.
For more information about depositing items, see the Submission Guidelines.
Recent Submissions
Revitalizing Hupač̓asatḥ navigational knowledge: Mapping the waters of settler-colonialism using a critical, coastal, community-based consciousness
(2026) Sayers, Alana; O'Bonsawin , Christine; Sayers, Jentery
I’m the great granddaughter of a hereditary chief, the granddaughter of a residential school survivor, the daughter of a residential school survivor, and the daughter of a mother who was part of the first wave of native women lawyers in the country as well as an elected Indian Act Band Council Chief. In my life, I carry the things that have been passed down to me throughout the generations, and I also carry the emptiness and pain of the things that weren’t. Growing up on the Hupač̓asatḥ, I witnessed multiple forms of governance, leaders, and chiefs. I saw our hereditary governance in practice alongside my mother as the elected chief of our nation. I was at meetings for modern-day treaty negotiations with other Nuučaańuł Nations; I saw native nationalism shift and change through attending native political meetings at the AFN, BC, and First Nations Summit meetings. And one of the places where I learned the most was at family dinner tables. I grew up in a really special family of strong, vocal, passionate folks who have immense love for our people. My entire life, I’ve watched most members of my family spend their lives working for the continuation of our nations and the strength of our people in lots of different ways. Things in our lives at every level were talked about: last week’s band meeting, the upcoming AFN AGM, Delgamuukw, the Haida Case, UNDRIP. Something was always going on somewhere, and my family was discussing it in depth around dinner tables.
My lived experience and academic training have provided me with the foundation for the creation of the Critical Coastal Community-based Consciousness which I designed to help me better understand how settler-colonialism functions specific to myself. To do this, I attempt to map out Hupač̓asatḥ and Hupač̓asatḥ First Nation in an ocean of settler colonialism by revitalizing our navigational knowledge to guide my decolonial praxis.
Or
The author views this dissertation as a curation of knowledges (generational, lived experience, and academic) designed to reveal how Hupač̓asatḥ First Nation has been racialized, one of the foundations of settler-colonialism, by the Canadian state. To view these knowledges and guide the curation of them, the author developed a Critical, Coastal, Community-Based, Consciousness which she uses to present specific instances of how she has experienced colonization in the form of an intergenerational mapping space.
Efficient, secure, and intelligent wireless systems: From edge AI to network management
(0020) Chegini, Mohammad Aaron; Baniasadi, Amirali
In one sentence: this thesis makes AI efficient, secure, and explainable enough for real-time wireless systems.
The vision of AI-native 6G networks is blocked by three barriers. First, state-of-the-art deep learning models are too large and power-hungry for battery-powered edge receivers, where modulation schemes can change every few milliseconds and must be classified in real time. Second, the edge hardware that hosts these models is vulnerable to physical denial-of-service attacks that degrade performance without any software breach. Third, when network faults occur, diagnosis remains a slow, manual process because existing AI systems cannot explain their reasoning to engineers. This thesis presents a unified framework that addresses all three barriers.
To solve the efficiency problem, we introduce RFNet, a lightweight neural network for Automatic Modulation Classification that reduces model size by over 90% compared to standard baselines. We validate this on real hardware with Tiny-RFNet, deployed on an NVIDIA Jetson Orin Nano, where it processes the full 255,590-sample RadioML 2018.01A test set in approximately 30 s under 3 W, fast enough to track adaptive modulation changes in real time.
To address the security problem, we present NoCSNet, a deep learning framework that detects thermal attacks on chip interconnects with 93.8% accuracy, catching malicious patterns that evade conventional threshold-based monitors.
To enable interpretable diagnostics, we introduce TRACE, a cascaded system for 5G root cause analysis. TRACE achieves 99.65% diagnostic accuracy on the TeleLogs benchmark, outperforming even 32-billion-parameter Large Language Models (95.86%), while running in milliseconds on a single CPU and providing transparent reasoning traces that engineers can verify.
Together, these contributions demonstrate that trustworthy AI for next-generation wireless requires co-design across efficiency, security, and interpretability.
Stitching together: Relationships, partnerships, and Kanyen'kéha revitalization at Tyendinaga
(2026) Brinklow, Nathan Thanyehténhas; McIvor, Onowa
Tsi Tyónnheht Onkwawén:na Language and Cultural Centre (TTO) has supported Kanyen'kéha (Mohawk) language revitalization in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory since 2000, with adult immersion and intensive language programs offered from 2004. During this time, TTO has partnered with three Ontario universities to design and deliver full-time and part-time programs in addition to offering independent programs. This study documented this history through organizational records, administrator memories, student experiences, and textile‑based Onkwehón:we research methods to uniquely preserve a multi-dimensional organizational story.
The study developed and deployed a quilting methodology grounded in Indigenous making traditions and the author’s own inheritance as a quilter. This approach positions object, process, and person in continual dialogue, and its material practices enable collective authorship, relational knowledge‑building, and meaning to emerge through the shared handling of stories and textiles.
Four interconnected texts ground the dissertation at its center. The initial two papers within offer institutional perspectives: 1) an organizational history tracing TTO’s growth from grassroots language circle to community language center; and, 2) revealing the relational approach that vitally shaped and sustained post‑secondary partnerships. The third paper represents the case study of the TTO-Queen’s University joint Certificate in Mohawk Language and Culture, journeying through program development, expansion, and the tensions that can arise between community-based needs and university‑based administrative structures. The fourth text centers the students’ voices, revealing that learners seek connection to family, community, ceremony, and identity more than credentials; and highlights how university systems oriented toward individual achievement can struggle to support the collective, relational work of language reclamation.
The quilt metaphorically wraps itself around the research narrating the collaborative creation of a story quilt, honoring the students, teachers, supporters, and partners who have worked over twenty‑five years to reclaim and strengthen Kanyen'kéha at Tyendinaga.
What can I hear from silence? A philosophical exploration of China’s ideological and political education in the higher education system
(2026) Huang, Yuan; Harvey, Lyndze; McDonough, Graham
Since 2020, Ideological and Political Education (IPE) has been intensified across Mainland China ’s higher education system, extending ideological governance and political value alignment across classrooms in all subjects and into teachers’ professional conduct. This thesis examines the meaning of silence in educational contexts, asking how teacher silence functions between compliance and resistance under intensified IPE governance. Drawing on Foucault’s concepts of discipline, governmentality, and subject formation, it analyzes silence as shaped by sovereign power (policies, warnings, sanctions) and productive power (surveillance routines, normalization, and self-regulation). Within this governance environment, monitoring, inspection, and evaluative mechanisms increase professional risk and encourage anticipatory self-regulation. Methodologically, the study combines philosophical inquiry with storytelling and abductive interpretation to analyze narrative scenes alongside policy texts and publicly documented disciplinary cases in this context. It argues that silence is not absence but a practice that appears in disciplinary, strategic, and ethical forms through which educators negotiate value conflict, risk, responsibility, and care. Under intensified IPE governance, silence becomes a key site through which teachers anticipate limits, regulate affect, and exercise professional judgment within politically constrained educational settings.
Condition assessment and long-term structural health monitoring of aging reinforced concrete water reservoirs
(2026) Nazari, Nasrin; Gupta, Rishi
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) is increasingly required to ensure the safety, serviceability, and longevity of aging reinforced concrete (RC) infrastructure. According to the Canadian Infrastructure report card 2019, many municipal water reservoirs in Canada were constructed several decades ago and are approaching or exceeding their original design service life, while continuing to operate under changing environmental and loading conditions. Traditional condition assessment approaches, primarily based on visual inspection and occasional destructive testing, are limited in their ability to provide continuous, objective, and system-level insight into structural performance.
This thesis presents an integrated framework for condition assessment and long-term monitoring of reservoirs, with a specific focus on an in-service reinforced concrete potable water reservoir located at Mount Tolmie in Victoria, British Columbia. The proposed framework combines finite element modeling (FEM), non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods, wireless sensor-based SHM, and Building Information Modeling (BIM) to develop an information-rich digital representation of the structure. Seismic response analysis with fluid–structure interaction is first conducted to identify structurally critical regions and guide sensor placement. A comprehensive, coring-free multi-NDE assessment which includes infrared thermography, rebound hammer, ultrasonic pulse velocity, ground penetrating radar, and non-invasive corrosion rate and electrical resistivity measurements, is then performed over multiple field campaigns to evaluate spatial patterns, repeatability, and temporal changes in material condition. Long-term sensor data, including linear displacement, tilt gauges, and acceleration measurements, are subsequently analyzed to characterize the structure’s behavior under operational conditions and to establish data-driven thresholds for anomaly detection. The novelty of this work lies in the first application of non-invasive corrosion rate and electrical resistivity measurements using the iCOR device for the condition assessment of an operating reinforced concrete potable water reservoir, together with the use of multi-year, coring-free NDE results to inform structural condition assessment and the development of a BIM-based digital twin framework in which long-term, low-frequency SHM sensor data are continuously linked to the 3D model to enable near real-time monitoring and automated anomaly alerts for stakeholders.
The outcomes of this research demonstrate the feasibility of integrating heterogeneous inspection, testing, and monitoring data into a unified digital twin model for reinforced concrete water reservoirs, supporting identification of critical zones and informed decision-making for maintenance and future monitoring of aging water infrastructure.