Team Name: Two-Tier Truth

Students: Zainab Zaidi, Nooriya Zaidi

“ Our research examined the deterioration of Alberta’s public healthcare system, with a focus on how its impacts differ across communities and how key stakeholders—policymakers, healthcare workers, patients, and private providers—shape and experience these changes. We adopted a qualitative, systems-based approach, drawing on reports, policy analyses, and recent literature to trace structural trends over time.

Students: Aleaha Florence

“ My project uses a systems thinking approach to examine the opioid crisis in Alberta, focusing on barriers to treatment and recovery as well as indigenous overrepresentation. Instead of viewing the issue as individual-level behavior, the project maps how structural, social, and policy factors interact to sustain the crisis. Key drivers include stigma, inequitable healthcare access, restrictive treatment policies, geographic barriers, and a toxic drug supply. These factors contribute to patterns such as delayed care, reduced treatment retention, and worsening health outcomes, with disproportionate impacts on Indigenous communities.

Students: Dana Dutton

“ My research identifies Generation Z as one of the loneliest generations, a pattern that is also evident in Canada. We define loneliness not simply as being alone, but as a lack of meaningful connection. Rather than viewing this as an individual issue, our analysis highlights how framing loneliness in this way overlooks the broader systems that sustain it.

I find that placing responsibility solely on individuals—and expecting them to cope independently—can intensify feelings of shame and guilt, while failing to address the structural factors at play. These include quality of life, sense of belonging, the influence of technology, and the pressures of self-sufficiency, all of which shape people’s capacity to build and maintain meaningful connections.

Team Name: Boiling Frogs

Students: Mohamad Kamel, Amelia Gutfriend, Laura Gonzalez, Cameran Christianson

“ Our research uses a system thinking lens to investigate why Alberta’s Family Support for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) program has reached a stagnant equilibrium; where children with disabilities are treated as a fiscal hindrance, maintained at the cost of their critical developmental windows.

Student: Andres Gomez

“ My project examines digital overstimulation and
compulsive social media use among young
adults in Canada. Rather than framing the issue
as a lack of individual self-control, it applies a
systems thinking approach to explore how
interactions between users, platforms,
algorithms, and economic incentives produce
persistent engagement. The research combines
academic literature, industry data, and systems
mapping tools, including the Iceberg Model and
feedback loop diagrams, to identify underlying
patterns and structures.